Well, Trevor Ariza showed up I guess? He was the only Rocket who played acceptably from a box-score perspective as the Rockets got blown out by almost forty in an elimination game. If you take his 6-of-12 shooting out, the Rockets don’t even shoot 25% from the field for the game (16 of 65), are only 8 of 32 from the threezone, and Harden only ends up with two assists because five of his were to Ariza.
I thought the Bucks’ 50-point loss to the Bulls in a first-round elimination game a couple years ago was bad, but this is worse, because that Bucks team really sucked and this Rockets team is actually good. The Bucks’ collapse, while unwelcome, wasn’t entirely unforeseen, whereas nobody saw this collapse coming from the Rockets. Especially with Kawhi out.
I slept on it and when I woke up this morning I still couldn’t really believe what happened. I had to double-check the boxscore. While I was cleaning out his litter box I even asked my little kitty Japurri Purrker “why was Ariza the only one who came to play last night, Mr. Kitty?” and he meowed at me. That really says it all, doesn’t it?