Not that they didn’t try. Omer Asik, the only Houston player to finish the game with a positive plus-minus (+8), returned to action at the
6:16 mark after a four-minute breather and, not coincidentally, the Rockets immediately went on a run of their own to climb back into the
contest.Houston james harden swingman jersey began to get stops and defensive rebounds once again. Jeremy Lin, quiet for much of the game up until that point,
turned red-hot and began torching Denver’s defense with his scoring and playmaking seemingly every time down the floor. When Carlos
Delfino drained a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game with 2:55 left, the question had to be asked: Could the Rockets really
and truly survive such an enormous fourth quarter run on the road against one of the best home teams in the league?
There were, however, warning signs that hinted at the misery that eventually ensued. Houston’s turnover woes, dormant the past two
games, returned in full force in the face of Denver’s aggressive, ball-hawking defense. And the Rockets’ transition D, a season-long
bugaboo, crumbled yet again amid a series of run-outs that allowed the Nuggets far too many easy, fast break buckets.
The leaks began when a pair of Houston breakdowns during the third quarter’s final minute led to the club’s eight-point lead being cut
in half. And when the final frame began, it wasn’t long before that trickle emanating from the makeshift dam Houston had erected turned
into a full-blown flood that brought the entire enterprise down. The Rockets endured an agonizing stretch to start the period; one in which
they too often fell victim to their own worst tendencies while settling for bad shots, missing the good looks they had, turning the ball over
en masse and failing to generate stops at the other end. Denver, meanwhile, did little to let Houston off the hook as Danilo Gallinari
drained multiple shots with men draped all over him. The damning equation: A lot of poor execution plus a little bad luck equaled 24-3.
And the Rockets could never fully recover.
The Rockets james harden jersey certainly did their best to make things interesting down the stretch of Wednesday’s 118-110 defeat to Denver, but ultimately
the excessive degree of difficulty they placed before themselves while enduring that Nuggets’ blitz was too much to overcome. Jeremy
Lin’s 13 fourth quarter points were not enough. Omer Asik’s third consecutive dominant game on the glass wasn’t either. The Nuggets
simply proved to be too good, especially on their home floor where they moved to 19-3 on the season, for Houston to dig itself that deep
of a hole while harboring any real hope of escape.
The Rockets james harden home jersey will undoubtedly lament their loss all the more because, up until Denver’s fourth quarter coup de grace, Houston had
actually gotten the better of the action and appeared primed to perhaps finally break through against a Nuggets team that has now
emerged victorious in each of its past six meetings with Houston. In fact, with one minute left in the third quarter, the Rockets owned an
eight-point lead and much of the momentum. Toney Douglas had just converted back-to-back steals into fast break layups. Chandler
Parsons was celebrating his addition to the Rising Stars roster earlier in the day by posting his highest scoring total (21) in nearly three
weeks. And the aforementioned Asik was devouring every rebound in sight, almost singlehandedly keeping the Nuggets’ furious all-out
assault on the offensive glass in check.
