Before there was Damian Lillard on Friday, there was Chandler Parsons.
With the game tied at 96 and the Rockets’ season on the line, it appeared as though Houston had avoided elimination by the slimmest of margins.
James Harden missed an incredibly difficult shot with the game clock winding down, thanks in no small part by the lockdown defense employed by Wes Matthews. But the rebound ended up in the hands of Parsons, who put in a reverse layup that left just 0.9 seconds on the clock, and gave the Rockets a two-point lead that appeared as though it would stick.
Jeremy Lin was among those who believed that the series was headed back to Houston.
From Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:After Rockets forward Chandler Parsons scored to put the Rockets up 98-96 near the end of the Game 6, guard Jeremy Lin thought it was over.
“I was like, man we got it,” Lin said. “I was like, oh we won, the game is over. We scored. I didn’t even know there was .9 left till we had the timeout. Then the worst case scenario was overtime cause we said no 3s.”
You can say “no threes” all you want. But with less than a second left on the clock, and considering the fact that Lillard is fading away on a catch-and-shoot three from well beyond the arc, that’s not something that can be planned for, and Lillard simply could not be stopped.
