Houston Rockets Out-Hustled By The Portland Trail Blazers

The Houston Rockets have embarked on one tough road trip, their second-to-last of the season.

The Houston Rockets have embarked on one tough road trip, their second-to-last of the season.

This three-game, four-day West Coast swing has the Houston Rockets take on the Portland Trail Blazers tonight, the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night and the Phoenix Suns Sunday night, closing out the trip.

It won’t be easy but I know that this team is up to it.

The Blazers had gone 12-3 for the month of March and 13-5 since the All-Star break, being one of the league’s hottest teams at the moment.

How did the Houston Rockets do?

The team started out solidly with each team trading baskets through the end of the 1st.

Although the Rockets didn’t necessarily shatter the earth with their play, they did enough to stay at the same pace as the Blazers.

The Rockets opponent got extremely physical, playing tenacious defense and effectively shutting down certain pick-and-roll plays.

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The Blazers had their hands up, feet shuffling and broke through the passing lanes to make the Rockets pay for their mistakes.

And boy did they…

But luckily the Rockets continued to keep a keen eye on their turnover count and tightened things up as the game moved along.

It’s also notable that the Rockets set the season record for three-pointers made after James Harden nailed one with 10.1 seconds left.

This gave the team 939 of those, beating the Warriors’ record, set just last season.

The Blazers continued to shoot well, keeping the Rockets at bay but not enough to take a large lead.

Jusuf Nurkic, a new acquisition at this year’s trade deadline was quite effective in the paint.

Clint Capela struggle to neutralize the big man and it certainly made it a long night for him.

But with all things considered, the team only trailed 65-56 at the end of the half.

The Rox were lukewarm from behind-the-arc, shooting just 5-for-16 at that point.

Things certainly didn’t get better for the Rockets as the third quarter progressed.

They continued to struggle with their shooting and the Blazers made it quite difficult for them to earn their keep in the paint as well.

With 47 seconds left in the third, the Blazers led by 13 points, their largest of the game 93-86 after a Allen Crabbe dunk.

To start out the 4th, Lou Williams went to work scoring eight quick points to pull the Rockets within seven points, trailing 98-91.

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The lack of bench production had hurt the Rockets and Lou certainly wanted to make sure that he was doing his part.

He held down the fort until the 6:11 mark in the 4th quarter when Harden returned from an extended break on the bench from his sore wrist.

Yes, Harden went renegade and the Rockets started to make one more valiant run as Lou cut the lead to 103-98 with a layup.

The next time the team got the ball back, Harden nailed a three-pointer from the top of the key, cutting their deficit to two.

Maurice Harkless then eventually drove into the lane for a dunk and to push the Blazers up further, 105-101.

Williams answered with a pull-up, followed by a Trevor Ariza dunk, tying the game at 105-all with 2:28 left in the game.

And then, all of sudden, it happened — the Blazers went nuts on the defensive end converting just about every Rockets’ mistake, eventually taking the game 117-107.

This certainly was a game where the Rockets did not match the Blazers intensity throughout and certainly was a situation where the winning team wanted it a bit more.

They still have a playoff spot to chase.

Harden led the Rockets with 30 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Ariza dropped 17 points, six steals and five rebounds.

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The bench had 30 points — compared to the Blazers’ 35 — with Williams chipping in 14 points and Nene Hilario bringing home the bacon with 14/7 in 23 minutes.

As for the Blazers, Damian Lillard led with 31 points and 11 assists while Nurkic had 19/11.

They had SIX players in double-figures for the night.

But it’s no the end of the world, we win some and lose some but live to fight another day.

They’ll do it again tomorrow night against Golden State.

Let’s hope for the best!

Go Rockets.