Coming into their second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, James Harden and the Houston Rockets were looking pretty good. They matched up well against the Lakers all season and they even took Game 1 to jump out to an early lead. However, all of this was quickly undone as the Los Angeles Lakers came back to win three-straight games, including Game 4 which went down last night. Throughout the match, Harden went to the free-throw for 20 shots although he only managed to score 21 points.
This loss has put the Rockets on the brink of elimination and it seems as though the Lakers have this thing locked up. After the game, Harden faced reporters where he spoke about exactly what went wrong. As he explained, the Lakers played staunch defense and didn't give him many opportunities to take open shots. When asked if he should forced the issue more, Harden said there simply weren't opportunities for him to do so.
On Saturday, Harden and the Rockets will have an opportunity to change the tide of the series and potentially make a comeback. Of course, the Denver Nuggets did just that to the Utah Jazz in the first round, so it is most certainly possible.
Needless to say, the rest of the postseason is going to be an uphill battle for this Rockets squad.