James Harden says Houston Rockets let opportunities slip away after playoff loss to Golden State Warriors
Sunday 12 May 2019 08:52, UK
James Harden said the Houston Rockets let opportunities slip away as they fell to a 4-2 series defeat to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals.
MVP co-favourite Harden scored a game-high 35 points but could not prevent his team from falling to a 118-113 defeat in Game 6 at the Toyota Center on Friday night.
With the Warriors playing without their injured leading scorer Kevin Durant, the Rockets entered the game hoping to force a winner-takes-all Game 7 but 33 second-half points and a clutch Klay Thompson three-pointer with 36.1 seconds remaining ended their title hopes.
It was the first playoff series in NBA history in which every game was decided by six points or less.
Speaking in the post-game news conference, Harden rued the Rockets' failure to make the most of the chances they had to win the series.
"We let a lot of opportunities slip away," he said. "Opportunities in the last game, opportunities in Games 1 and 2. If you don't take advantage of the opportunities, you can end up on the losing side.
"It always hurts when your season ends. It's very, very frustrating but you've got to let it sink in a little bit and find ways to get better. They are a great team, they've been in the Finals for the last four years. We're not losing to some scrubs. We've got to find a way to keep getting better and keep playing them.
"Give them credit. Klay got it going in the first half and we kind of shut him down. The Steph got it going. Talented group. We're in the postseason playing against the best players in the world and you've got to be on your A-game. In the games we lost, we weren't. A big play can be anything, it's not just shot-making. It's rebounding, boxing out, switching correctly, all those little things. We gave Steph [Curry] three open looks and he nailed all of them."
Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni echoed the sentiments of his All-Star guard.
"This one is going to leave a mark," he said. This is not something you just get over with. I'm definitely not gonna get over it in this press conference or tomorrow or the next day - this one hurts.
"We didn't play our best and to beat these guys you have got to play your best. It's almost like in boxing match. You've got to knock the champion out and we couldn't knock them out - you're not gonna win on points. We didn't do it, we didn't deliver the blows that at least would get us back to Golden State [for Game 7]."
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was effusive in praise of his team, reserving particular credit for the Game 6 contributions of starting guard Curry and his bench players.
In addition to Curry's second-half eruption, reserves Kevon Looney (14 points, five rebounds), Shaun Livingston (11 points) and Jordan Bell (four points, two blocks) made telling contributions.
"They're giants, they're champions, these guys are a historically good basketball team and you don't do what these guys have done without an incredible combination of talent and character," he said.
"I could go down the list but I thought Steph [Curry] epitomised that tonight. Zero points at half-time, three fouls, a complete non-factor in the game, and then just completely took over the game on a night when everything was going wrong and he found a way to turn it around.
"I also want to single out the bench, just an amazing night from a group of guys who have not played this entire series. Injuries forced us to use the bench. I probably should have used them earlier. We talk about strength in numbers. Those guys were amazing and were really a huge factor in the win."
Warriors forward Draymond Green also cited the performance of the Warriors bench.
"We've all heard that all year about how our bench isn't strong and how [as a team] we are not as deep. Tonight, every player who came off that bench proved everybody wrong. It couldn't have happened at a better time for us.
"Our entire bench, everybody who stepped on the floor came in and gave us great minutes so being just the way it all unfolded just getting contributions from everybody, this one felt really good."
The Western Conference Finals commence in Oakland in the early hours of Wednesday morning - the Warriors will face either the Portland Trail Blazers or the Denver Nuggets.
