Hizack
12-21-2014, 02:47 PM
Source (http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/Lillard-s-game-winning-shot-still-reverberates-5971468.php?t=d1ba7ad86d006749db&cmpid=twitter-premium#/0)
http://i.minus.com/iq1naQ7SpWdum.gif
[QUOTE]Even now, more than seven months later, those two words cause Rockets' stomachs to turn and hearts to ache.
Point nine.
That's all that needs to be said for the memories to be clear again. Point nine. The images of the defensive breakdown, the Trail Blazers' improvisation and most of all, Damian Lillard's sublime 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded all become as clear as if that replay was flashing before the Rockets again.
They knew immediately that the split second would define their season and live on. The highlight has taunted them again and again with reminders of the final nine-tenths of a second of their playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers when a two-point Game 6 lead was turned into a stunning one-point loss and the Rockets were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.
The Rockets left Portland that night knowing they would never be together again. Their chance to take their series home for a Game 7 and they still believe to a longer playoff run had crashed and burned.
They vowed to use "point nine" to motivate them, to drive those players who remained through this season and into the next postseason chance at redemption.
For now, with the Trail Blazers due at Toyota Center on Monday night, long after the Rockets came nine-tenths of a second short of bringing them there, the visions of that final split second in Portland remain clear:
Chandler Parsons, former Rockets forward: I got the little tip-in that put us up
http://i.minus.com/iq1naQ7SpWdum.gif
[QUOTE]Even now, more than seven months later, those two words cause Rockets' stomachs to turn and hearts to ache.
Point nine.
That's all that needs to be said for the memories to be clear again. Point nine. The images of the defensive breakdown, the Trail Blazers' improvisation and most of all, Damian Lillard's sublime 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded all become as clear as if that replay was flashing before the Rockets again.
They knew immediately that the split second would define their season and live on. The highlight has taunted them again and again with reminders of the final nine-tenths of a second of their playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers when a two-point Game 6 lead was turned into a stunning one-point loss and the Rockets were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.
The Rockets left Portland that night knowing they would never be together again. Their chance to take their series home for a Game 7 and they still believe to a longer playoff run had crashed and burned.
They vowed to use "point nine" to motivate them, to drive those players who remained through this season and into the next postseason chance at redemption.
For now, with the Trail Blazers due at Toyota Center on Monday night, long after the Rockets came nine-tenths of a second short of bringing them there, the visions of that final split second in Portland remain clear:
Chandler Parsons, former Rockets forward: I got the little tip-in that put us up