Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder square off in the playoff series-decider game of the American Basketball League 2019-10.
Match Timing: September 03, 2020 (6:30 AM)
Team Preview
The fifth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder are the “road” team as they face 4th seeded Houston Rockets on Wednesday night in the series decider Game -7. Rockets draw the first blood in the series with a 123-108 win in Game 1 and a 111-98 victory in Game 2 as the “home” team. Oklahoma City bounced back to win Game 3 and 4 to square the series. Houston took a 3-2 lead in the series on Saturday after a 114-80 victory in Game 5 and on Monday night, the Thunder knocked out Houston 104-100 as the home team to take the playoff series to the decider game-7. The last game was pretty competitive and the Rockets took away the first two quarters with slight margin of one and two-point. Thunder recovered the 3-point advantage by taking 3rd quarter 24-29. Fourth-quarter was more intense but Thunder hold the nerve and finished the game 104-100 to level the series 3-3.
Chris Paul led the Thunder with 28 points and seven rebounds while Danilo Gallinari scored 25 points plus five boards in the win. James Harden paced Houston with 32 points plus 8 boards and 7 assists. Houston shot 45.2% from the floor, including 15 out of 44 from the 3-point range, and forced 22 Oklahoma City turnovers but they lost in the offensive rebounds with 41-51. Thunder shot 42.7 percent from the field, including 12 of 36 from three-point range.
Oklahoma City is doing wonder in rebounding as they stand first in the league with pulling down an average of 50.5 boards per contest. The Rockets stand third in scoring defense as they allow an average of 104.3 points per contest.
Possible Starting Lineups
Houston Rockets
Russell Westbrook (PG), James Harden (PG/SG), Eric Gordon (SG/SF), Robert Covington (SF/PF), P.J. Tucker (C)
Oklahoma City Thunder
Chris Paul (PG), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (PG/SG), Lu Dort (SF), Danilo Gallinari (SF/PF), Steven Adams (C)
Key Players
Oklahoma City Thunder
Chris Paul (PG): 21.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SG): 15.8 points, 5.7 rebounds
Houston Rockets
James Harden (SG): 31.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists
Eric Gordon (SG): 17.7 points, 3.2 rebounds
