LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (AP) – Chris Paul gave the Oklahoma City Thunder at least one more bubble game, scoring 15 of his 28 issues in the final quarter for a 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets Monday night in Game 6 of a Western Conference first series.
Paul made two shots on the loose with 13.1 seconds to play and the game drew at 100, and Danilo Gallinari added two more after a ball loss from Russell Westbrook.
The seventh game will take place on Wednesday and the winner will advance to face the Los Angeles Lakers.
That gives the West two games 7, with Denver and Utah in position to play his on Tuesday.
In such a tight game to the end, none of the teams led with double digits, the Thunder recovered from an eruption in Game 5.
Gallinari added 25 points.
James Harden had 32 points, 8 rebounds and seven assists for the Rockets, while Robert Covington had 18 and Westbrook 17 in his game as opposed to a right quadriceps détente.
Houston won the top dominant playoff win in Game 5, winning 114-80 after holding Oklahoma City with 31.5% shots, but the Thunder rocked it, just as they hit a 2-0 deficit in the series.
Most of the first part dealt with some problems in both cases.The Thunder continued to fail, reaching only 41.7% overall and going only 3 out of 15 in 3 problems.
But they defined it well and the Rockets didn’t get 30 problems for more than four and a half minutes in the final quarter.Harden scored six straight points at the end of the part and Eric Gordon hit a three-point bell for a 51-four8 lead.
Westbrook scored five consecutive numbers to open the third and the Rockets would get a nine-point lead in the period, but Gallinari prevented it from getting worse, then Dort made a tray and two triples for an 8-0 streak that ended with the game.fourth and sent Oklahoma City to the fourth with a 77-75 lead.
Oklahoma City extended it to eight, but Houston erased it with an 18-4 streak and an 98-92 lead.Paul responded with three consecutive numbers to tie him again, and then unleashed him forever.
TIPS
Rockets: Covington has an average of 18 years in the last 3 games after a total of 18 in the 3 most sensitive …Gordon had only nine problems in three of 12 shots.
Thunder: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished sixth in the voting for the Most Improved Player award, won Monday through Brandon Ingram of New Orleans.
REMEMBERING A RIVAL
There was a moment of silence before the game for John Thompson, the Georgetown Hall of Fame coach who died at age 78.Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan played against Thompson’s groups when he was in Providence in the 1980s, and lost a NIT game in his last postseason.team in 1998 after starting training in Florida.
“In fact, I think the Great East at the time was explained through the coaches and those guys who were such smart figures, and actually Coach Thompson was,” Donovan said. “I think the things that you look at, the things that he was a part of, the I think the things that he did outdoors in basketball were incredible for the expansion of our country and the expansion of our sport.
TOO CLOSE FOR YOUR COMFORT?
The Rockets and Thunder are the remaining groups at the Grand Floridian Resort
“People have their own schedules, their own routines, the things they have to do,” Donovan said, “so you cross paths, yet it is been nice.”
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