On the brink of missing playoffs, Rockets dig deep

Harden gets 15 of his 41 in 4th as Houston tops Thunder

POSTED: Apr 3, 2016 9:32 PM ET

HOUSTON — Desperate people have been known to do desperate things.

Firemen rush into burning buildings to save lives. Grandmothers lift up the front end of compact cars to save injured children.

The Rockets play with a sense of responsibility to save their season.

Here was another fourth quarter and here was one more chance to guess where the ball in the roulette wheel would land for the NBA's most profligate spenders of opportunity.

There were James Harden and Patrick Beverley and Trevor Ariza and K.J. McDaniels and Clint Capela firing themselves all over the court in the fourth quarter to make plays and make baskets and make a difference in a 118-110 win over the Thunder on Sunday.

"By any means necessary," said coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

"Our backs were against the wall," said Ariza.

"It's never too late," said Harden.

Pick a cliche, any cliche. The Rockets have trotted them all out ever since an 0-4 start had them falling back on "it's a long season."

Except now it's not.

The schedule is down to five games and the only way this bunch that entered the season posing as a legitimate championship contender can be assured to even qualify for the playoffs is by winning them all.

That's what has been so very puzzling and frustrating about the Rockets from October into April — they can. Or they just might turn right back around and forget to play all the way through the fourth quarter in one or more of them. They can come from 20 points down to win on the road in Cleveland one game and them blow an 18-point lead at home and lose to an injured, struggling Chicago in the next.

"You can't play to lose," Ariza said. "You have to play the same way the whole game. That's when we give ourselves a chance to win."

Over the past few weeks they've had Harden raising his game up into the stratosphere again so often that another 41-point, nine-assist effort comes to be the norm. But what the Rockets have never been able to make normal is a concentration level that is consistent, a willful, prideful attitude that delivers more than talk.

So why would a team that has underperformed for nearly six months have faith in a down-the-stretch resurrection?

"Because we have no choice," Bickerstaff said. "It's simple, really."

If only the Rockets could find it within themselves to come with the same sense of urgency that fires inside their bellies every time they line up against the Thunder. Never mind OKC's potent 1-2 punch of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Never mind those bright orange uniforms this time that had the Thunder looking like flying, slam-dunking pumpkins.

"I don't know what it is," Bickerstaff said. "There are some heated relationships there. James going back against his old team. Pat and Russell have a history.There are some definitely some underlying beefs."

So when Harden stole a Durant pass and fed it ahead to Beverley for a rip-roaring dunk that sealed the win, there was reason for Beverley to crow.

"If we didn't win this one, our chances of getting into the playoffs were very, very, very low," Ariza said. "We played a variety of guys. We stayed fresh. We just had to win this one."

Even more, they have to win the next one on Wednesday night in Dallas. They trail the Mavericks by a game in the standings and a win would not only eliminate that gap, but also give Houston the tie-breaker advantage in a scenario that looks like it will go down to the very end.

From there the Rockets are supposed to be done with the heavy lifting since the close-out portion of the schedule will serve up a plate of cupcakes in the Suns, Lakers, Timberwolves and Kings. So which one — or two — might get stuck in their throats?

It is fashionable in some corners to say that these Rockets with Harden andDwight Howard would be a dangerous match for any team in the upper half of the Western Conference bracket. But why would anyone that's been paying attention all season think that an undisciplined, underperforming leopard would suddenly change its spots?

So when somebody asked Bickerstaff if on the nights the Rockets aren't playing, whether he checks the out of town scores by the Mavs, Jazz or other teams in the race, he just smiled.

"The only team I worry about is this one," he said.

Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.

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