What went wrong on the Rockets’ notorious late-game possession?

Legler shares thoughts on Rockets’ meltdown

Former NBA sharpshooter Tim Legler, now an analyst at ESPN, shared his thoughts on the Rockets’ late-game meltdown, stating that the mishap is par for the course for Russell Westbrook.

“The problem with Russell Westbrook in these situations, and we saw it again last night, is that he wants to do everything with speed. And that’s not the time you want to use speed to your advantage.

You want to be able to process the defense and see what’s in front of you. He puts his head down and just goes and finds himself in traffic and now he throws this off-balance pass to Robert Covington, who wasn’t expecting it, and it goes out of bounds.

And that looked like a Russell Westbrook play at the end of a game. I don’t know why the ball wasn’t in James Harden’s hands when they drew that up coming out of that timeout during the challenge.

But to me that ball has to be in Harden’s hands, because he’s got a better handle, he’s a better shooter, and he’s a better finisher. So I don’t know what they were trying to accomplish there, but I don’t really trust them to close out a game, as much as I would trust a guy like Chris Paul to make sure his team gets the shot they want.

So if this thing goes down to a one possession game in a Game 7, I think Oklahoma City has the advantage.”

The Rockets will have to re-group for Game 7, which is on Wednesday. With Game 7 being so closely played after Game 6, the Rockets will be able to wash the bad taste of defeat out of their mouths, which could make all the difference.