Houston Blows The Doors Off Minnesota Behind A 50 Point Third Quarter To Take A 3-1 Lead

I don’t think anybody would go so far as to saw the Timberwolves are in the same universe as the Rockets as a basketball team, but after their Game 3 win broke a 14 year drought, you could argue that they were riding a bit of momentum heading into Game 4. I mean a 121-105 win against this caliber of team doesn’t happen very often. And given how Game 4 started, that seemed to be the case. The Rockets had just a 1 point lead after the first 12 minutes. Butler got off to a good start, Rose was huge off the bench with 11 first half points, and for the second game in a row HOU struggled shooting the ball, finishing the half with 38/28% splits. If not for some turnovers, MIN was completely in control.

Or so they thought.

The thing about NBA basketball is it includes 4 quarters. To win in the playoffs, you usually have to show up for all 4 quarters. Or, if you’re lucky, you can just do what the Rockets did in the third quarter. In the first half, they scored 50 points. 50 points in 24 minutes isn’t all that bad. In the third quarter, they scored 50 points. They won the quarter by THIRTY POINTS. Another quarter with 0 turnovers the Rockets shot 60/69% with 9 3PM on 13 3PA. As I write this the Timberwolves have just 8 3PM for the entire game. I don’t think I need to explain how impossible this is to achieve, If we’re being honest I can’t remember if I’ve actually ever seen someone toss up a 50 spot. I know personally it takes the Celtics two and a half quarters to do what the Rockets did in 12 minutes. Insanity.

This was also the first time this series we got typical Rockets production from their big guns. Harden was magical in that third and finished with 36, CP3 was efficient on the way to 25/6/6/5, and then when it came time for Eric Gordon to come off the bench and light the place up, he responded with 18 points off the bench with 4 3PM. At the end of the day this game continued the blowout trend in this series. After the first game being decided by 3 points, no game has been relatively close since. Any sort of panic that HOU fans may have had after dropping Game 3 is for sure gone, and they now get to return home with an opportunity to close it out and wait to see which of UTA/OKC will be coming to HOU for Game 1 of the second round.

50 points, Jesus Christ.