West Conf. Semis - Game 3: Houston Rockets 113-92 Utah Jazz - 5 Talking Points
Game 3 seemed like a continuation of Game 2 when Joe Ingles hit a 3 to start of proceedings, but that's where the similarities ended. The Houston Rockets responded in style to rout the Utah Jazz in a crushing 113-92 win. The Game wasn't even as close as the scoreline suggests, which is saying something.
James Harden and Eric Gordon led the way with 25 apiece as the Rockets wrestles home court advantage back from Utah to go up 2-1 in the series.
Here are the talking points:
#5 Rockets explode in the 1st half and never look back
As mentioned, the game started off with an Ingles 3, but then it was all Rockets. Houston went on a 19-2 run after Ingles hit that 3 and just rolled on. The Rockets assisted on 8 of their first 13 shots and Utah's vaunted defense had no answer for them. Some pretty woeful Jazz turnovers helped too.
They turned it over 16 times in this one, compared to 8 for Houston, allowing them to get out on the break and speed away. They led 70-40 at the half and even stretched the lead to 38 points at one point.
The most pleasing part of this win for Mike D'Antoni might be the fact that it was a very balanced effort this time around. Houston got 32 from Harden, 20+ from CP3 and Clint Capela in the Game 2 loss but not much elsewhere. This time, the trio didn't have terrific games but it didn't matter in the end.