James Harden will face-off LeBron James and the Lakers despite a bad Game 7 offensive performance. The Oklahoma City Thunder put up a good fight with Chirs Paul and Luguentz Dort hitting new records.
The Game 7 of the Western Conference has got to be one of the entertaining ones so far. With the Denver Nuggets advancing to the semi-finals after being down 3-1 to face the Los Angeles Clippers, we now see the Houston Rockets advancing to battle the Los Angeles Lakers.
Dort on a shooting barrage, CP3 with a historic triple-double
Despite the Oklahoma City Thunder losing 104-106 to the Rockets, NBA veteran Chris Paul proved to the critics that he still has some fuel left in the tank. He became the oldest player in NBA history to pull-off a triple-double in a Game 7 at 35 years old. The point god was able to record 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists.
Oldest players with a triple-double in a Game 7 (age in years-days):
35-119 Chris Paul (tonight)
31-172 LeBron James (6/19/2016)
30-342 Jerry West (5/5/1969)
27-158 Larry Bird (5/13/1984)
27-115 James Worthy (6/21/1988)— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) September 3, 2020
Lu Dort has been spectacular this series as he was able to shut down James Harden on defense. The undrafted rookie also went lights out as he scored a career-high of 30 points, shooting 50% from three and the other NBA players on Twitter praised his performance.
Despite the Thunder going home this year, it looks like the future is bright for this organization moving forward.
The last minutes filled with crazy sequences
In the 7-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Chris Paul tied the game at 96-96. After that, it became a back-and-forth defense war between the two teams including these flopping moments in the last minute of the game.
Thunder v Rockets featuring Benny Hill pic.twitter.com/MjeJRQyXeK
— Dane Arden (@DaneFarten) September 3, 2020
But the main highlight of this Game 7 series was James Harden clutch block over Lu Dort on his 3-point attempt. This also resulted in the officials ruling out that Dort stepped out of bounds in which the possession became in favor of the Houston Rockets.
The Oklahoma City Thunder had a chance to win with 1.1 seconds off the clock, but the Houston Rockets were able to shut them down resulting in a thrilling victory for James Harden.
He even acknowledged that he played terribly offensively only scoring 17 points shooting only 4 out of 15 shots in the field. Eric Gordon and Robert Covington were able to carry the team scoring 21 points each while Russel Westbrook scored 20 points.
But at the end of the day, in the world of sports, it all boils down to respect.
Rockets’ James Harden offers huge hug to Thunder’s Luguentz Dort after seven-game battle pic.twitter.com/5IWhE7M1cS
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) September 3, 2020
We shall see this Friday if the Houston Rockets would be able to give the Los Angeles Lakers a challenging series ahead as they prepare for Game 1.
Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons