ASU Basketball: Rockets Defeat Thunder with Sun Devil on Sun Devil Crime
Wednesday night, the Houston Rockets and James Harden defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder and Luguentz Dort in game 7 of the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, final score 104-102.
What a game it was for Dort. The undrafted rookie had the game of his life. The rookie scored 18 points in the first quarter, and with about four minutes into the third, he set a Thunder rookie playoff record with 21 points. And well, want to know who held the record before Dort? You guessed it, it was former Devil and the person playing against Dort in this game 7, James Harden. The previous record set by Harden was 18 points.
Dort ended the night with 30 points. Which is the most points by an undrafted rookie in a Game 7.
The undrafted rookie joined some great company with his performance in game 7. He now leads the list of most points by a player 21 or younger in NBA Game 7 history.
1. Luguentz Dort (30) 2. Lebron James (27) 3. Kobe Bryant (25) 4. Jayson Tatum (24)
James Harden and company move on, but the world got to see these two head to head battle it out and what a show it was.
The final seconds of the game, when James Harden blocked a shot by Dort and then did a high jumping jack to avoid Dort trying to bounce the ball off of him, was pure sports entertainment at its best.
While Sun Devil fans wish that both could win, there can only be one winner, and at least they can see ASU continued to be represented in the NBA playoffs.
The Rockets take on the Lakers on Friday.