Rockets blow out Thunder: 3 takeaways from Game 1

The Houston Rockets dominated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half to claim a 118-87 victory and a 1-0 lead in this highly anticipated first-round matchup. Here are three takeaways from Game 1.

Of the eight matchups in the first round of these 2017 NBA Playoffs, the series between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder was arguably the one that most people were looking forward to, mainly due to the top two MVP candidates in James Harden and Russell Westbrook being involved. But the hype doesn’t always live up to the build and that was certainly the case at the Toyota Center on Sunday night. Harden and the third-seeded Rockets completely dominated Westbrook and the sixth-seeded Thunder and pulled away in the second half for a surprising 118-87 win in Game 1 of this best-of-seven series.

The game was close throughout the first half with Houston taking just a five-point lead into halftime but they just turned it on in the third, outscoring Oklahoma City 30-20 in the third quarter to take a 15-point lead into the final frame, and then just kept pouring it on in the fourth with consecutive 3s from James Harden closing the door on any chance the Thunder had of getting back into it. But The Beard certainly didn’t win this game on his own as he got some great help from his supporting cast. So let’s take a look at the MVP matchup and a couple of other takeaways from Game 1.

Takeaways

James Harden won the battle of the MVP candidates over Russell Westbrook and it wasn’t even close. Although they’re not even guarding one another, the matchup between James Harden and Russell Westbrook is always going to be the main focus of this series. They’re the top two candidates for NBA MVP, but it was Harden who had the edge in Game 1. After missing a few shots early, including a couple of airballs, he recovered nicely and ended up with 37 points on 13-for-28 shooting. He didn’t shoot that well from the 3-point line, going only 3-for-11 from beyond the arc, but those two in the fourth quarter sealed the deal for Houston and essentially gave Oklahoma City no chance to fight back. Harden also dished out 9 assists and grabbed 7 rebounds with just 2 turnovers on the night.

As for Russell Westbrook, he’s had better nights. Sure, the stat line of 22 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists looks nice but he shot just 6-for-23 from the floor and really only got going for a short time there in the second quarter. He was also 3-for-11 from the 3-point line. The most glaring statistic from Game 1 is the fact that Westbrook committed nine turnovers, mainly due to the subject of the next takeaway.

If Patrick Beverley continues to play like he did in Game 1, the Rockets are going to sweep this series. Beverley came up huge on Sunday night on both ends of the floor and actually outplayed Russell Westbrook. Yes, you read that correctly. He was all over Westbrook on the defensive end, causing him to take bad shots and never letting him get comfortable on the floor. Beverley has always been able to get underneath Westbrook’s skin and in fact, the only win the Thunder got over the Rockets in the regular season (Houston won the season series 3-1) was a game in which Beverley did not play.

As for his offensive output, the fifth-year guard out of Arkansas was just as brilliant, scoring 21 points on an extremely effective 8-for-13 night from the floor. He made 4-of-6 3-pointers and seemed to only get stronger after getting slammed to the floor on that big screen from Steven Adams. The tandem of Beverley and Harden in the Houston backcourt combined for 58 points on 21-for-41 shooting, easily outplaying Westbrook and Victor Oladipo, who went just 1-for-12 from the field, meaning the OKC backcourt starters scored just 28 points on 7-for-35 shooting. Beverley dished out a few nice assists as well and also grabbed 10 rebounds, which was actually two more than Adams, Enes Kanter and Taj Gibson….combined. And that leads us right into the final takeaway of Game 1.

The Houston Rockets owned the paint in Game 1. Patrick Beverley wasn’t the only one to outrebound the trio of Adams, Kanter and Gibson as Ryan Anderson grabbed 12 boards of his own. Harden had his seven and Nene chipped in seven of his own to go along with 15 big points off the bench, on 7-for-8 shooting. The Rockets outrebounded the Thunder, who came in as the best rebounding team in the NBA (Reggie Miller never let us forget that, did he?) 56-41, grabbing eight more boards on the defensive end (42-34) and doubling up OKC on the offensive glass (14-7). That second point led to one of the biggest keys of the night for the home team as they outscored the visitors 31-4 on second-chance points.

In perhaps the most surprising statistic of the night, the Rockets held a 62-38 edge in points in the paint. That’s not usually how the Rockets win basketball games and it’s even more shocking due to the fact that Oklahoma City came in as the highest-scoring team in the NBA in the paint. Houston shot an incredible 31-for 45 (.689) in the paint and the Rockets’ big men had their way with their OKC counterparts. The Thunder have a few days to make some adjustments as this was one of their big advantages coming into this series.

Next: 5 keys to Rockets vs. Thunder

Game 2 is set for Wednesday night in Houston and we’ll be here covering every single aspect of the series so be sure to check back in with FanSided each and every day for updates on not just this series but every matchup in these 2017 NBA Playoffs.