The Houston Rockets finally found a way to close out a game in their playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
And it allowed them to escape playoff elimination with a 105-103 win over the Thunder on Monday night.
Chandler Parsons scored 27 points and Patrick Beverley added 16 points with point guard Jeremy Lin out with a bruised chest muscle. Houston avoided a four-game sweep in the best-of-seven series.
The Rockets led in the fourth quarter of each of the last two games only to end up losing.
”We felt the pain and frustration from the last two losses … and we didn’t want that to happen for the third straight time,” Parsons said.
It almost did.
Kevin Durant scored five quick points to cut the Rockets’ lead to two. James Harden missed two shots for Houston after that and the Thunder had a last chance.
Reggie Jackson missed a jump shot and Serge Ibaka grabbed the rebound, but missed a layup at the buzzer…
Durant scored 38 points in Oklahoma City’s second game without injured All-Star guard Russell Westbrook…
Harden scored 15 points, but also had 10 turnovers. He had two chances to extend Houston’s lead with less than a minute left, but missed both of them, including shooting an air ball…
Jackson finished with 18 points in his second start in place of Westbrook, and Kevin Martin added 16.
Houston got 17 points from Omer Asik and 13 from Carlos Delfino.
– Reported by Kristie Rieken of the Associated Press
