During halftime, the Head Coaches of both teams displayed vastly different approaches in their locker rooms.
Doc Rivers was quite laid-back; he had no intention of changing any tactical arrangements.
The only point he emphasized was to strengthen the defense on Harden.
"In the second half, we need to focus more on double-teaming Harden!"
"He has too many ways to score. When he enters the paint, everyone needs to double-team him."
Doc Rivers looked at Kai Chen: "Kai, we need you to provide to keep the firepower on offense."
On the other side, in the Houston Rockets' locker room,
D'Antoni's expression was extremely grim.
The pre-game defensive plan of having PJ Tucker guard Kai Chen had clearly failed.
After all, it was truly difficult to contain Kai with just one Tucker.
And most importantly, Kai's back-and-forth scoring and defending against Harden in the latter half of the second quarter.
This greatly depleted Harden's stamina. If Chris Paul could have played this game, D'Antoni wouldn't have cared about this point at all.
With Paul, their offensive tactics would be much smoother.
But unfortunately, Paul was in a suit for this game and couldn't change into a jersey to help the team.
How to defend him?
Continue to let Tucker be a ATM machine?
Or let Harden keep pushing himself, continuing to go one-on-one with Kai on both offense and defense?
"Danny!"
As D'Antoni was at his wit's end, he saw Danny House handing water to his teammates: "You're starting directly in the second half. Your job is to primarily defend Kai Chen!"
Hearing this, House clearly couldn't believe his ears.
"Me?"
"Yes, you!"
D'Antoni said unequivocally: "Your mission in the second half is to stick to Kai!"
Halftime quickly ended, and both teams' starting lineups returned to the court.
"The battle between James Harden and Kai Chen is not over yet!"
"The four-quarter game has now become a contest of the final two quarters!"
"Who wins and who loses may only be answered in the very last moment of the game!"
Amidst the commentators' words, the Los Angeles Clippers advanced the ball to half-court.
After Beverley raised his hand to call for a screen from Lopez, he shook off Harden's defense and, at the first opportunity, still chose to find Kai.
Facing Danny House's defense, Kai Chen made no unnecessary movements, a fluid sequence of small dribbling combos, shaking off the defense, and cutting cleanly into the paint, making a layup in the air while contending with Capela!
"Fuck!"
Seeing that House couldn't limit Kai Chen's scoring, D'Antoni on the sidelines couldn't help but curse loudly.
"Send someone else!"
On his way back on defense, Kai said as he brushed past D'Antoni: "Do you guys not have anyone else over here???"
Offense and defense switched, Houston Rockets' first possession of the second half!
James Harden on the right side faked a drive using Capela's screen, but actually faked again, took a step to his left, created space from Beverley's defense, and shot a three-pointer from beyond the arc!
"Swish!"
The basketball drew a perfect arc in the air before swishing through the net!
78:73!
The point difference between the two teams was gradually narrowing.
"Oh my goodness!"
In the live broadcast room, NBA Insider couldn't help but agree: "Harden is really amazing."
"Now it seems, only Harden can go toe-to-toe with Kai on offense."
"Kevin Durant???"
Looking at the scrolling text on the screen, NBA Insider said somewhat speechlessly: "Durant's eye for picking teammates has always been very good!"
"Let me tell you this, if either Kai or Harden were to swap with Durant, then the league could directly award the championship trophy to the Golden State Warriors!"
The first half of the third quarter between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers once again became a back-and-forth scoring show between Kai Chen and Harden.
Harden completely unleashed his firepower on offense today.
In the eight minutes he played in the third quarter, he scored another 18 points.
He scored 58 points in just three quarters!
Kai Chen was equally unwilling to show weakness in the third quarter, playing eight and a half minutes and putting up 14 points in the single quarter!
He scored 62 points in just three quarters!
Although Kai still led in individual scoring, the Houston Rockets, by the end of the third quarter, had already changed the score to 110:108, taking the lead.
"James Harden with 54 points in three quarters and Kai Chen with 62 points in three quarters, both players are constantly breaking their career-high scoring records."
Harden's career high was 60 points.
He still needs 6 more points!
Kai's career high was 62 points, achieved this season in a game against the Boston Celtics.
And he has now tied his career high in just three quarters.
The score difference between the two teams was tight.
As the absolute core of their respective teams, they will continue to create new highs for themselves in the final quarter.
"We are very likely to see two players score over 60 points in the same game today!"
"This is an extremely exaggerated feat; throughout the entire history of the NBA, no one has ever accomplished it!"
In NBA history, there have only been four instances where both opposing teams had one player score over 20+ points.
But historically, no one has ever achieved a 60+ point performance in the same game.
This game between the Clippers and the Houston Rockets features two superstar scorers simultaneously.
These two superstar scorers are also both having a massive breakout game at the same time.
And the score between them is still very close.
This epic-level duel, which only occurs when multiple conditions are met,
Will be played out for the first time in history today!
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