By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Dennis Schroder scored 30 points off the bench and Chris Paul had 26 and big clutch plays as the Oklahoma City Thunder got the 117-114 win over the Houston Rockets and tied the first-round Western Conference playoff series at 2-2.
The 30 points of the German guard are a career playoff-high 30 points as the Thunder rallied from 15 points down in the third quarter to get the win.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Thunder and Italian forward Danilo Gallinari scored nine points.
James Harden had 32 points, 15 assists, and eight rebounds for Houston but it was not enough, while Russell Westbrook sat out for Houston again with a strained right quad.
Houston made its first eight 3-pointers to start the third quarter. The Rockets led 93-80 before Schroder made a 3-pointer and Houston’s Austin Rivers was called for a foul away from the shot. Oklahoma City’s Nerlens Noel made the free throw, and that sequence sparked a 12-0 run for the Thunder.
Chris Paul ended the night talking in the post-game interview about the Kenosha shooting which shocked and mobilized NBA players.
“I just want to send my prayers out to Jacob Blake and their family”, said Paul who is also the president of the NBPA. “We decided to come down here to play and speak about social justice and the things that continue to happen to our people. It’s not right. So win it’s good, but voting is real and I am going to challenge all my NBA guys to get our entire teams registered to vote. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the country and those are the real issues that we will have to start addressing”.