But as the clock ticked down in the closing minutes, Harden idled on the bench, Griffin’s touch deserted him and it was the castoff and the journeymen who kept the Rockets alive for one more game. Houston erased a huge LA lead in the fourth quarter on the way to a stunning 119-107 victory that forced a decisive Game 7 Sunday in Houston.
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This was a result few could have seen coming given the way the game had unfolded in the second half.
The Rockets led by five late in the second quarter but were undone by the expected — a Griffin dunk — and the unexpected — a pair of DeAndre Jordan free throws — as the Clippers embarked on what became an 18-4 run stretching across halftime.
Houston went 6:02 without a field goal in the middle of the third quarter and the Clippers kept pushing, stretching their lead to 19 with Griffin making highlight-reel plays on both ends of the court.
Then Los Angeles suddenly went cold. The Clippers made one field goal in the final 6:47 — a Chris Paul 3-pointer at the buzzer — as Smith and Brewer took over on the opposite end. The pair accounted for 20 of their team’s 21 points late in the fourth quarter as they roared into the lead and never let up on the defensive end.
Smith and Brewer finished with 19 points each, Brewer scored 15 in the fourth quarter alone, after scoring a total of nine between them in the first half. They were among six Rockets in double figures, outweighing Paul’s late-breaking 31-point performance and 28 from Griffin, who managed only six points in the second half.
Harden finished with 23 points and Dwight Howard had 20 points and 21 rebounds.
