NBA Playoffs 2013, Thunder vs. Rockets: Oklahoma City closes it out in Game 6

“For Reggie to step in and play four solid basketball games at the hardest position in basketball (after Westbrook’s injury), he was terrific,” said Brooks in the press conference after the game.

Jackson has averaged 18 points and nearly four assists per game while shooting just under 50 percent in those four games.

Memphis and Oklahoma City met in the second round in the 2010-11 season. The Thunder won that series in seven games with both teams looking dominant at times -- five of the seven games were decided by double figures.

Memphis won two of three games against the Thunder this season.

The Rockets got off to quick starts in the first and third quarters. Houston trailed early before a 15-0 spurt put them in the lead. The Rockets went on to shoot nearly 60 percent in the first quarter and led, 29-26, after one.

• Stephen Curry’s 10 best shots of the playoffs

Here’s our review of the keys to the game:

Well, Martin is. Martin came off the bench in the first quarter with Oklahoma City trailing by nine and the Rockets on a 12-0 run. From that point on, the Thunder out-scored the Rockets 22-16 and Martin was perfect offensively -- 2-2 from the field, 1-1 from three-point range and 4-4 from the free throw line. He scored nine points in the quarter and 21 in the first half.

Will OKC Role Players Be Able To Fill In For Westbrook?

Tom Ziller of SB Nation wrote about the big adjustments OKC will have to make earlier in the week:

But even with Durant scoring 10 points more per game than his season average (28.1) while also maintaining over 50 percent shooting from the field, the Thunder have lost two of their three games without Westbrook.

The Rockets are doing a great job of keying in on Durant, which is an expected result of Westbrook’s absence. They’ve correctly sent extra defenders at him, as the Thunder have proven to be inconsistent on offense when the ball is out of Durant’s hands.

The Rockets won Games 4 and 5 without Lin, and McHale isn’t going to risk shaking things up too much going into a do-or-die contest at home:

The 24-year-old guard has struggled against OKC in the playoffs. Through three games he has posted 4.3 points on 25 percent shooting, 2.7 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game over 23.7 minutes per contest. In Game 3, he shot 1-of-6 from the field. If he struggles again on Friday night, don’t expect McHale to leave him in to work through the issues. The stakes are too high for Houston, as it’s another potential elimination game.

After the diagnosis, the team treated him on Thursday.

It’s not as if the strep throat had affected Harden all that much. Coach Kevin McHale had said before Game 5 that he only worried about Harden having enough energy to play effective minutes, according to the Houston Chronicle, and Harden answered the bell by scoring 31 points and grabbing eight rebounds. It was also his best shooting performance, as he went 10-for-16 from the floor and drilled 7-of-9 three-pointers.

I don’t think so, and in fact I think the Thunder can get pretty deep still. It’s just going to take some real adjustment time.

So, Westbrook has been creating a huge portion of OKC’s shots through his own aggression and passing for five seasons now. He’d never missed a game before last week. Every time KD has stepped on the court since October, 2008, Westbrook has been right there with the ball largely in his hands. All those scoring titles? Russ was there, feeding. The epic shooting numbers? Russ was there, feeding. All those wins? Russ was there. That run to the NBA Finals last year? Russ was there.

“Hack-Asik” (that’s hak-uh-sheek), as it was termed, ended up hurting the Thunder as much as it helped them, and Asik’s final numbers from the line of 13-for-18 showed poise down the stretch necessary to close out a tight game.

When teams lose in the manner the Thunder did -- by slowing the game down to a snail’s pace and making a close contest nearly unwatchable for fans -- all eyes typically shift toward the head coach for an explanation. Obviously, he’s well within his rights to do whatever it takes to win at all costs, but the questions pile up when the result doesn’t go as planned.

The opening round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs is suddenly filled with 3-2 series drama after the Rockets and Celtics pulled out upset wins on Wednesday night. The Thunder tried a hack-Asik approach, but it backfired. The Knicks couldn’t shoot straight, while Boston’s offense came alive. Things just got interesting, as both of the underdogs forced a Game 6 scenario on their home courts. Meanwhile, the Pacers dispatched the Hawks with ease to go up 3-2 in that series.

Harden drained seven of his nine three-point attempts to keep the Houston offense humming, but Asik came up with the real heroics. OKC got a bit desperate and started to employ a hack-Asik (hack-a-Turk?) strategy in the fourth quarter. Despite a few misses, Omer came through with some big free throws down the stretch (13-18 FTs for the game) and the Thunder never quite made a run to scare the Rockets.

Harden was brilliant after struggling in Game 4 and finished with 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 7-of-9 from the three-point line. Garcia added 18 points and added five rebounds and three assists on the evening. All five of Houston’s starters scored in double figures to mitigate the struggling bench’s lack of production.

Oklahoma City finished just 8-for-33 from beyond the arc as they struggled to keep pace with the Rockets’ hot streak from deep as they finished 14-for-35 and made big shots when it mattered most.

Conversely, Oklahoma City is ice cold from deep, going just 1-for-12 while shooting 41 percent from the field overall. Both teams played a relatively clean game overall with five turnovers each.

Harden showed no fear as he continued to shoot the ball with confidence early on, making his first two three-pointers to lift Houston to an early 16-9 lead. He finished the first quarter with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Durant continued to take the reins for OKC with nine points in the first frame and scored five from the free-throw line as looked to penetrate and get high-percentage looks.

Kevin McHale’s team finally found itself on the winning end of the three close games by taking Game 4, 105-103. In the end, the Thunder will take flak because Kevin Durant carried them with 38 points and they still lost. But it was the Rockets’ offense, and by relation Oklahoma City’s defense, that might be the biggest question mark coming into Wednesday’s Game 5 in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Attacking Parsons on Oklahoma City’s offensive end might help tire him. So will sending more bodies at the Rockets forward -- and physical ones at that.

2. They are not going away from many of the sets that brought them here, especially the 1-3 and 3-1 pick and rolls. (The former is broken down here.)

Neither of these things are especially surprising. It’s hard for any coach to radically change his playbook in the middle of a playoff run, so expecting anything more than small tweaks to Oklahoma City’s offense is expecting too much. But the sheer simplicity of the Thunder’s post-Westbrook offense requires certain players to raise their games to fill the roles that healthy players once filled.

One of the keys to the game before the opening tip was the play of Harden, and if one were to figure he’d finish with 15 points on 4-of-12 shooting, then it would seem as though the Rockets were doomed.

“We know we can play with these guys,” Parsons told reporters following the game via NBA.com. “We know we can beat these guys. There was no way we were going to give this thing up.”

The final play that would’ve tied the game occurred when Reggie Jackson drove the lane, ran into an outstretched Omer Asik and narrowly missed a running shot attempt. Serge Ibaka got the rebound and had a wide-open look from point-blank range, but he missed it.

Durant had brought the Thunder back with five straight points, including a thunderous dunk through four defenders. James Harden missed two jumpers to set up Oklahoma City’s final play.

Durant dove for a ball near the scorer’s table and landed awkwardly on his wrist, immediately grabbing it while in obvious discomfort. He went to the sidelines during a stoppage of play, but was able to return to the floor after getting some attention from team trainers.

He is in the middle of a strong performance and will be instrumental in any attempt for the Thunder to eliminate the Rockets via a sweep. To this point, he has 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting, adding five rebounds and three assists. His five turnovers have contributed to Houston’s attempt at a comeback.

Parsons in particular is on his way to becoming a star in the league, and if he can lead the Rockets past the Thunder in order to survive, especially on a night where Harden clearly isn’t at his best, then it will go a long way toward solidifying his already-growing confidence as a young player with obvious talent.

Now, the burning question is whether or not Houston has enough left in the tank to challenge Oklahoma City for the final two quarters.

For Houston to avoid being swept, Harden must not settle in isolation and use his dribble penetration to create offense. He was effective around the rim, making seven of his nine field goal attempts in the restricted area, but in isolation sets, Harden missed eight of his nine jumpers. (via MySynergySports.com)

Sefolosha did a great job of staying with the play and keeping his head up on defense. Sefolosha isn’t giving Harden space to get comfortable with the ball, even when the Rockets are running off-ball plays for him.

That means fewer isolation plays and more ball movement, something that wasn’t happening in Game 3, where the Thunder recorded 14 total assists. Durant has shown he can pass the ball well, and he’ll have to start doing so as defenses hone in on his individual offense.

On a smaller scale, the growth of Reggie Jackson is an interesting storyline to follow as this series ends and the next begins. Win or lose Game 4, the Thunder will rely upon the young point guard to knock down open shots and keep a calmness about the offense when Durant isn’t dictating things. Furthermore, how he develops as a defensive player will be a thing to watch down the road, where he is likely to run into one talented point guard or another.

Harden can do it, as he’s proven all season. Only two of his nine made field goals were assisted, and he provided six assists for his buddies with only two turnovers. Parsons took advantage of those assists and shot well (8-12), and had seven assists of his own. But he also had five turnovers.

This isn’t to say the turnover result would have been different with a healthy Lin (who didn’t play in the fourth); Lin is particularly turnover prone himself. But having someone to handle the ball and initiate the offense comfortable when buckets get tight is important. Despite spending a whole lot of money on the position last July, Houston doesn’t have that right now. It’s costing them a chance to win a game or two in this series. And seriously, if Lin can’t offer more than he did in Game 3 while injured, he shouldn’t be playing injured. Aaron Brooks, who got nine minutes in Game 3, hasn’t been very productive for Houston this time around. But he can at least play freely, which an injured Lin cannot.

How will Westbrook’s injury affect Durant?

There’s a faction of people who think Westbrook’s injury could be good for Durant, as now he will have the ball in his hands more. And Prada notes that the Thunder have outscored opponents by 13.4 points per 100 possessions in 523 minutes this year when Durant was on the court and Westbrook was on the bench. But things are different in the postseason, and with no Westbrook around, the Rockets will likely focus more of their attention on Durant.

Will the Rockets’ guards take advantage of Westbrook’s absence?

It was revealed Friday that Westbrook would require surgery, but there was still an outside shot that he would be able to return later in the postseason if the Thunder were able to advance far enough. However, that door has now been shut.

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Beverley has averaged 13.5 points, eight rebounds, and five assists through two games in the series. Beverley went on to say it was an “unfortunate situation” that Westbrook was injured on the play and called Westbrook a top-3 point guard, Feigen reports.

Beverley’s decision to attempt a steal on an unsuspecting Westbrook may have just been a player trying to make a routine play on the ball, but the outcome could have severe consequences for Oklahoma City.