OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Houston Rockets let an opportunity slip away on Tuesday night. Sure there are plenty of games left in this Western Conference finals, but losing a 16-point lead in the first half against the best home team in the NBA?
The Rockets lost that lead with a late run by the Golden State Warriors and played catchup the rest of the night in a 110-106 loss in Game 1 on Tuesday.
You can pin the loss on what happened at the end of the half when they lost Dwight Howard to a bruised knee as well as their 16 turnovers in the game, including six in the fourth quarter.
In the last seven minutes of the half, the Warriors went on a 25-6 run, making 10 of 17 shots while the Rockets just couldn't get a basket. Golden State's run was capped by a nasty 3-pointer by Stephen Curry at the first-half buzzer for a 58-55 lead and all the momentum. The Rockets never regained the lead.
Reminds you of what happened in the fourth quarter to the Los Angeles Clippers in their Game 6 breakdown against the Rockets in the second round. This meltdown by the Rockets was a 2-for-10 finish to the half.
Rockets coach Kevin McHale had opportunities to halt the run yet called a 20-second timeout and two full timeouts in the first half. He didn't want to use the three remaining full timeouts he had left for the second half. So in his mind, he had nothing left for the first half. He was stuck watching, hoping his team would stop the run.
"I guess I used them all," McHale said. "We had some turnovers, we had some mistakes. They were going to make some runs, but we were able to battle back. We gave ourselves a chance. Again, like I said, we missed too many shots right around the rim. We didn't rebound the ball well enough and there were a lot of little things that we can do better."
What compounded the loss even more was the departure of Howard. Without him, the Rockets didn't have their best rim protector and used rookie Clint Capela at center as part of a small lineup.
Capela, who plays calm and has earned the trust of McHale, scored nine points with four rebounds in 12 minutes.
As hard as the Rockets fought, they didn't make the necessary plays to win late in the game. A defensive breakdown allowed Curry to make an uncontested layup to complete an 11-0 run, pushing the Warriors to a 108-97 lead with 2:01 left.
Houston rallied to reduce the deficit to five, but Harden's bounce pass to Josh Smith went through his hands with 42.5 seconds left for a potential layup that would have brought the Rockets to within three.
But the Rockets still had a chance, this time after a Trevor Ariza steal and 3-pointer that cut the lead to 108-106 with 14.6 seconds to play.
With two fouls to give, the Rockets tried to deny the inbounds pass, but the second foul was committed on the worst guy possible: Curry, an 82.8 percent foul shooter in the postseason. He made both of his free throws, and that was the game.
"It felt like we let one get away," Corey Brewer said. "Sometimes it happens like that. We missed a lot of easy shots, shots that we normally make. We had too many turnovers and we gave them too many easy buckets. But hey, we are right there. We know we can win here."
Harden was fantastic and he was the only positive from this game from the Rockets' prospective.
He took over the game in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds. He scored all of his points during this burst from 9:23 to 5:53 of the quarter. His 18-footer tied the game at 97-97.
Yet, Harrison Barnes got free for a dunk -- remember no Howard in the game -- and on the next possession for Houston, Smith threw a pass over Terrence Jones' head for another turnover.
As Smith walked down the floor, he held his hands over his mouth.
Yes, this loss was painful for the Rockets because they had their chances. If Howard doesn't return or is limited physically, it makes winning this series harder for them by the minute.
"We've done a great job of letting games go," said Harden, who finished with 28 points. "It's about Game 2 now. Game 1 slipped away from us. We had several opportunities to win the game, didn't happen, so I think we'll look at some film, we'll go out there and correct some things basically that were on us and just be better in Game 2."
