112-102, askip it’s better to play both halves to win a match

Hardly the thunderclap of the (expected) qualification of the Heat digested, so we had to get a little water on the face and switch to the West for this Game 3 between Los Angeles and Houston. Everywhere the ball in the center before this match and therefore a real stake, all united finally to offer us a new magic end of night. Well it’s missed because the Rockets will only have played basketball … half time. We’re exaggerating, but that’s a bit like it.

A start on the hats of wheel, without Brian Scalabrine yet, and… go stop, stop beating around the bush: one of the most enjoyable halves of all these Playoffs. To keep it simple? Everyone is responding. Rockets side Robert Covington activates the machine with a 4/4 Jeep Cherokee type but it is then the duo Russell Westbrook / James Harden who takes matters in hand. A Brodie transfigured after his cataclysmic Game 2, a James Harden who looks quite like the… James Harden that we have known for a few years now, and obviously Houston who holds the shock. Withstand the shock it was necessary because if opposite if AD is struggling against the dwarf defense of the Rockets and ensures the minimum, LeBron James is for his part switched to combine mode. 17 points at the break for RW? 21 for the Bearded? You will put 29 for the King, at 10/14 shooting including 4/5 from the parking lot of his kingdom. Untenable, imperturbable, see you soon 36 years old, it just needs to be remembered. An offensive first half, therefore, necessarily, and a score of 64-61 at the break, in favor of the Texans.

Unfortunately for the latter, the return of the locker room will also be a return to Earth, with double effect please. Firstly ? Lakers who increase the sound in defense, there is no longer a shoot that comes in, and quickly the Angelinos take control to never let go. The second Kiss-Cool effect? Are you just saying that this royal second half of the Lakers will have been largely managed by a certain… Rajon Rondo, Rondo Playoffs for close friends. Already prominent in Game 2, the revenant forgot his aggressive t-shirts to become one of LeBron’s best allies, ending his evening with an astonishing 21-point stat line (at 8/11 including 3/5 parking) and 9 passes. Rhythm, skill, body language as strange as ever, but a real added value in any case for the Playoffs on this series, and Rockets without a solution when their main weapon is properly defended.

In the end, Houston’s famine in the second half will be fatal to them, and the 64 pawns of the first period will turn into 38 in the second, well insufficient to hope to snatch anything from a LeBron / AD duo on a mission. 36/7/5 and the first all-time place in the number of wins in Playoffs for the first, it’s calm, 26/15/6 without forcing for the second, very boring, and the Rockets now led 2-1 in the series and in the obligation to seek a second win tomorrow evening, otherwise the bubble will have to be left quickly.

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