Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan gathered the team at intermission in the locker room with the score tied at 60 to lay out the facts.
He explained how the Thunder had surrendered eight 3-pointers in the first quarter, before limiting the Houston Rockets in the second quarter to only one bucket from long range.
Thunder point guard Chris Paul figured, “we were trending in the right direction.”
“Then they came out [in the third quarter],” Paul said.
“Wham, wham, wham.”
Add five more whams for a more accurate depiction of the carnage wrought by the Rockets on Monday in knocking down eight consecutive 3-pointers from the start of the second half to the 2:54 mark of the third quarter in seizing a 13-point lead.
Somehow Oklahoma City survived it to even this Western Conference playoff series at 2-2 by way of a 117-114 victory. Credit the Thunder for carrying the same clutch gene into the bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort that they displayed throughout the regular season.
“I think a lot of these guys understand now that there’s so many possessions in an NBA game, and there’s so much time, and people are playing so much faster that leads that years ago maybe seemed like a really difficult hill to climb, I think are certainly attainable to get back in a game,” Donovan said. “Certainly, you never want to be down by 13 points. But if you look at the way the game started, we kind of jumped on them. They came right back. … I mentioned emotional toughness. That’s where you have to have it. They knocked down some shots, and they kind of built a lead.
“Our composure, and the way we stuck together, the way we encouraged each other, I thought that was really important. When you’re playing against good teams, adversity is gonna come. It’s all how you handle it collectively as a group.”
When you’re playing against good teams, adversity is gonna come. It’s all how you handle it collectively as a group.”
By now, nobody should be surprised by what transpired in Game 4. Remember, in Game 3 on Saturday, Oklahoma City flexed its three-guard lineup of Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schroder to best the Rockets 119-107 in overtime.
The difference in this one is Oklahoma City didn’t need an extra quarter to complete the job.
After combining for 78 points in Game 3, the Thunder trio of guards came together for 74 to unseat the Rockets again, this time led by Schroder’s game-high 30 points and Paul’s contribution of 26, followed by Gilgeous-Alexander, who chipped in 18 points.
“We can’t slow down,” Schroder said. “We’ve got to play fast, get stops on defense, get the rebound and just go. I think we’ve got three great point guards in this league who can make decisions, who can create for each other and who can make their teammates better. We’ve got to use that as our advantage. We’ve been doing that all season.”
After starting off the third quarter 8-for-8 from 3-point range, the Rockets would cool considerably to finish the quarter at 9-for-15 beyond the arc.
Oklahoma City played a major role in that, as Paul scored 14 in the third quarter to lead a 12-0 Thunder run over the last 2:54 of the frame, punctuated by a Schroder 31-footer off a Paul assist that pulled them within one point for the start of the fourth.
