We interrupt the Warriors sweep for an announcement: The Houston Rockets have a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference Finals.
Despite some heavy shooting struggles from James Harden (0-11 from three… seriously?), the Rockets leaned heavily on their defense, as they did in Game 4, and pulled out another gritty win, 98-94 at Toyota Center to put them one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance in 23 years.
But it was bittersweet.
With just over 22 ticks remaining, Chris Paul pulled/strained his right hamstring and had to leave the game. We won’t know more until Friday but given the nature of hamstring injuries, it doesn’t seem promising.
MK Bower joins me for the post-game pod at Toyota Center to discuss all things Game 5 — Houston’s surprising physical play, Harden’s rough shooting night, the gutsy play of Eric Gordon, the Paul injury, Mbah a Moute time and more.