Rockets Complete Comeback, Beat Clippers to Advance to NBA West Finals

The Los Angeles Clippers had the Houston Rockets on the ropes and on the brink of elimination in their NBA Western Conference semifinal series, but couldn’t close it out. The Clippers had taken a 3-1 lead in the best of seven series following 25 and 33 point blowout victories in Games three and four. The Rockets went to work and had a 21 point victory in Game 5 to make it 3-2. It looked like L.A. was going to wrap it up in Game 6 after getting out to a 19 point lead in the third quarter, but Houston went on a 51-20 run and pulled out a 119-107 victory in Los Angeles. The shell shocked Clippers had no answer for the Rockets, who never trailed in Game 7 and won the game 113-100 to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

This was only the ninth time in NBA history that a team has come back from a 3-1 deficit in a playoff series. There is already a lot of finger pointing and analysis over who or what on the Clippers is to blame for this collapse. Probably the best analysis we’ve seen is that while L.A. has a great group of starters, there’s not much depth on the roster.

While the Clips come to grips with this loss, Houston will open the West Finals May 19th at Golden State. The Atlanta Hawks will host Game 1 of the East Finals in May 20th.