Doc Rivers and Chris Paul start to walk off the court after Thursday’s meltdown that resulted in a 119-107 victory for the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals/Photo by Michael Owen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News
The Houston Rockets apparently felt good entering the fourth quarter of their 119-107 victory over the Clippers in Game 6 on Thursday at Staples Center.
Once the Rockets cut their 19-point deficit to 13 after three, at least one of them knew they had the Clippers where they wanted them.
“Trevor (Ariza) said at the beginning of the fourth quarter, ‘We are going to win the championship, but we have to win this game right now. If we win this game right now, that’s how you become a champion,’ ” said Corey Brewer, who had 15 of his 19 points in the fourth. “Then we came together and got the win.”
Houston center Dwight Howard smiled when pondering what had taken place.
“This game was, it was amazing,” he said. “I just stopped looking at the clock and the score. We all just gave up ourselves for the team. We played big minutes, we played hard, we played together and we never stopped believing.”
When James Harden went out of the game with 1:33 to play in the third, the Rockets were still down 89-73. Harden, who has been under the weather, did not play another second. He checked in with 1:01 left in the game, which by then was over, but checked right back out.
The Rockets outscored the Clippers 51-20 over the final 15 minutes of action.
Game 7 is Sunday at Houston.
