Rockets bury Wolves with insane 50-point 3rd quarter

After scoring 50 points in the first half and heading into the break with just a one-point lead on the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 on Monday night, the Houston Rockets exploded in the third quarter, matching that first-half total in a single frame. By quarter's end, the lead was 31.

James Harden led the charge with 22 points in the quarter, rebounding from a tough first half in which he settled for a few too many step-back threes. In the third, he filleted every Wolves defender he saw by putting the ball on the floor and lulling them to sleep before exploding to the hoop. Or he skipped the lulling part and just exploded to the hoop. Or he wove through a maze of defenders in transition. Or, yeah, he went to that step-back.

Harden, who missed his first seven shots to start the game, went 7-of-10 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep in the frame. The Rockets as a team shot 8-of-12 from beyond the arc, with Chris Paul getting in on the act by knocking down all three of his own long-range bombs.

After a dominant showing in Game 3, the Wolves had looked like they had a chance to level the series at two games apiece. They were playing solid on-ball defense, getting help from some cold Rockets shooting, getting an improbable contribution from Derrick Rose, and scratching out enough offense to keep things close. Houston's offense, which had been historically great in the regular season, had still yet to really show up in the playoffs.

And then the second half started, and in a blink, the game was over. The Rockets buzzed around on defense, pushed the pace off Minnesota misses, got into their sets quickly, eviscerated the Wolves on switches, and rained pull-up jumpers. It took just over six minutes for the Rockets to stretch that one-point lead to 23. The Wolves closed the gap in a perfunctory fourth quarter, but the Rockets coasted from there to a 119-100 win, sending them home with a 3-1 series lead. Harden finished with 36 points. Paul finished with 25.

Houston is just the second team ever to score 50 points in a playoff quarter, and the first in 56 years. The Los Angeles Lakers hung 51 on the Detroit Pistons in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 1962 West Division Finals. The Pistons won the game.