The eighth-seeded Houston Rockets beat the 73-win Golden State Warriors in an actual NBA playoff game. It happened! It really happened! It went down thanks to one of the sillier end-games in recent playoff history.
With 14 seconds left, the Rockets managed to take a 95-94 lead. The ball was knocked out of bounds, and Houston had the ball under their own basket. They called a timeout to draw up the best baseline out-of-bounds play. This is what they got:
On probably their most important possession of the season, the Rockets lobbed the ball over Michael Beasley’s head to nobody in particular. The Warriors pushed the ball down the floor and Ian Clark scored to give Houston a 96-95 lead.
With no timeouts left, James Harden came down the floor, stopped, sending Andre Iguodala flying, and drilled a pull-up jumper.
That left the Warriors with the ball and two seconds left. If Curry’s healthy, he probably gets the ball. But Curry wasn’t, so Draymond Green got the ball 35 feet from the hoop. He took his eye off the inbound pass and booted it out of bounds.
With one second left, the Rockets inbound the ball… and aallllmoooooost give the ball to Shaun Livingston with an uncontested lane to the basket:
And just like that, the Rockets win! 97-96!
To recap, here’s what it takes for a Rockets playoff win.
— Home court advantage
— Steph Curry, the best basketball player in the NBA and a historically great shooter, sat out with a tweaked ankle for the second straight game
— Klay Thompson, who made more three-pointers this season than anybody besides Curry has ever hit in a season, went 0-for-7 from three
— James Harden had 35 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds
— Dwight Howard and Donatas Motiejunas both had double-doubles, with Howard looking like a functional basketball player for the first time all series
And with all that, they won by one point. Never let it be said the 2015-16 Rockets didn’t win a playoff game, but considering how many ridiculous things it took for it to happen, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen again.
This article was written by Rodger Sherman from SB Nation and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.