Rockets icy 3-point shooting hurts in loss to Golden State

Posted: January 20, 2017 -- 11:40 pm CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- The Houston Rockets' signature calling card, three-point shooting, deserted the team Friday night in a 125-108 loss to the Golden State Warriors. Trailing by five points at halftime, the Rockets were outscored 37-22 in the third quarter thanks, in part to 0 for 10 three-point shooting in the third period.

Zero. For. Ten. From three.

The bagel from three in the third period followed 1 for 7 three-point shooting in the second quarter.

The Rockets trailed by as much as 22 points in the third quarter. The Warriors began the quarter with a 12-4 run to lead (74-61). Clint Capela scored four consecutive points before Draymond Green hit a three-point shot; Warriors' center Zaza Pachulia scored a layup; then, Steph Curry sank back-to-back three-point buckets; and, in less than two minutes of game action, the Rockets trailed the Warriors by 20 points (87-67).

The Rockets shot 43.5% (10 for 23) from the floor in the quarter while the Warriors shot 61.9% (13 for 21).

Patrick Beverley made a three-point shot with 10:20 remaining in the fourth quarter to end the Rockets' three-point field goal drought. Beverley's bucket pulled the Rockets within 15 points of the Warriors.

The Rockets (33-13) did not get closer than 15 points the rest of the quarter and trailed by as much as 24 points in the final stanza.

Clint Capela scored a career-high 22 points for the Rockets while Golden State's Kevin Durant scored a game-high 32 points followed by 24 from Steph Curry. Capela added 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of this season.

"I think I’ve played 20 minutes. It’s getting better; conditioning wise it's getting better," Capela said.

The Rockets finished the game shooting 20 percent (7 for 35) from three-point range.

They obviously played better than we did and we didn’t shoot the ball at all well," said Mike D'Antoni after the game. "And, against a team like this you got to keep scoring. I felt that on the defensive end we were soft early and we just didn’t get into people and it’s almost, you know again, no use in making excuses, these guys have been champions and are really good. They’re playing really well and they’ve had a couple days to rest, you know off and on and we just played seven games in 11 days and we had tired legs."

"I think we’ve had eight or seven (games) in 11 (days) and we’re about to go on a five game road trip, James Harden said. "So, we’ve got to grind it out. This is the NBA, no excuses. We’ve got to figure it out and that’s where we are right now. We’ve got another game tomorrow in Memphis and we got to figure out ways to win."

Harden finished the game with 17 points, 11 assists, and 7 rebounds marking his 37th double-double of the season.  Harden has recorded a point/assist double-double in 36 of the 46 games this season.  Dating back to 1992-93, that is the highest total by any player through the first 46 games of a season.

The Rockets face the Memphis Grizzlies Saturday night to tip-off the five game road trip. Houston is 2-4 in its past six games since winning 9 straight ball games.

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