HOUSTON – Thanks to 31 points from James Harden, the Houston Rockets rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-100 to advance to the Western conference finals to face the NBA’s best regular-season team in the 67-win Golden State Warriors.
Harden, who finished second to Golden State’s Steph Curry in MVP voting, will have the opportunity to make a statement against a team in the Warriors, that has had their way with the Rockets in winning the season series, 4-0.
Down in the series 3-1 and by 19 points in the fourth quarter, the Rockets rallied to stun the Clippers in Game 6 before going wire-to-wire on their home court to become the ninth team in history pull off the feat.
For the game, Harden led all scorers with 31 points, Trevor Ariza added 22 points and Dwight Howard added 16 points and 15 rebounds. For the Clippers, who once again camp up short in the post-season, were led by Blake Griffin’s 27 points and 11 rebounds, Chris Paul added 26 points and 10 assists and DeAndre Jordan finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds.