The Houston Rockets came into game 5 with their backs against the wall down 3-1 in the series, and The Clippers showed no signs of stopping.
Houston thankfully showed a lot more effort all around and it showed in their play Tuesday night.
In the first quarter Houston started off the Hack-A-Jordan early on the first possession of the game, and Jordan would shoot 16 free throws this game.
For The Clippers Blake Griffin once again came to play just like he has all series scoring 6 first quarter points to help keep Houston from pulling away.
The second quarter was The Clippers downfall of this game being outscored 36 to 26 in the quarter.
Things really took off for James Harden here scoring 14 points in the quarter and hitting a jumper to beat the buzzer before halftime giving The Rockets a 63-48 lead and Houston would not look back.
Another big time player in tonight’s game was small forward Trevor Ariza who played very efficient shooting 8/12 from the field scoring 22 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.
Aria would hit 2 of his 4 three pointers in the third quarter helping the Rockets lead reach 20 at one point.
The Clippers were not done yet as they cut that 20 point lead to 14 going into the 4th, but the Rockets would halt that comeback.
In the fourth the Rockets came out firing extending their lead to 19 points thanks to Josh Smith and James Harden.
Rockets shot 31% from beyond the arc and would defeat The Clippers 124-103 with the big game from James Harden scoring 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Dwight Howard would add 20 points and 15 rebounds while The Clippers struggled to get the scoring production Houston did.
The Clippers had big games from Blake Griffin 30 points and 16 rebounds and Chris Paul with 22 points and 10 assists.
Unfortunately, Austin Rivers did not have a big game like his Game 3 performance.
The Clippers big producer off the bench was Spencer Hawes with 11 points his biggest game of the series.
The Rockets look to send the series to 7 games on Thursday night, but The Clippers should close this out with how sporadic the Rockets effort has been all series.
