On Wednesday night, ESPN gave fans an exciting doubleheader with serious playoff implications in the finale. The Houston Rockets traveled up north to Minnesota for a dance with the Wolves.
Much like in their first matchup, Anthony Edwards had to sit out for tonight’s game. Houston hopes for this to help them get the 2-0 advantage for the season series.
Minnesota came out with an aggressive defensive mindset, making it tough for the Rockets to put the ball in the bucket. After taking nearly five minutes to get six points, and half of the quarter to get to double digits, shots finally started dropping.
An elbow jumper and deep three from Sheppard helped make it 17-19, but Houston couldn’t manage to get the lead. Turnovers played a big role in that, finishing the quarter behind 19-23.
Durant only made one out of his seven attempts as both teams combined to shoot 30-percent. An ugly start to say the least.
Ime Udoka tried to let them play through their struggles after yet another turnover gave Minnesota another eight point advantage at 26-34. They only had eight made field goals compared to their seven turnovers.
The half ended closer than it probably should have with Houston only down a single point. Not too bad after a historically bad shooting first half from Durant, going only 2/11 from the field.
Starting the final 24 minutes, a middy rimmed out for Durant and kept his team behind for a bit longer. Their first lead of the game would come a minute later on a Şengün push shot. Both teams started to trade baskets at that point, the lead changing back and forth for the first half of the third quarter.
But again, Minnesota started to pull away in this ugly game. It seemed like Alperen Şengün was the only member of the Rockets who could make a shot. Another brutal quarter ended on a high note as Jabari drained a three to cut the lead down to two points at 68-70.
Everything was going Minnesota’s way to start the final quarter of play. In the first three minutes, they had the crowd rocking and ready for a win on a Wednesday night. They got close to extending their biggest lead past eight points multiple times, but finally did it midway through the quarter.
With plenty of time left, Houston had high hopes after draining 19/19 free throws. Those hopes were quickly squashed as Jabari Smith Jr. turned it over on a fastbreak, leading directly to Jaden McDaniels draining a three.
For good measure, he also stripped Durant and got a breakaway dunk to extend the lead to double digits for Minnesota.
An improbable 12-0 run stunned the home arena thanks to more unsightly turnovers from Minnesota. Durant and Şengün scored all of those points, giving their team the lead and ultimately leading to overtime.