James Harden took off on a fast break seemingly certain to cut into the Clippers’ 23-point lead, no one between him and the basket, with Harden seeming to slow down enough to choose how he would want to slam home what had become an increasingly rare bucket.
The Clippers would not even allow that. Pat Beverley ran down Harden from behind and took him down with a flagrant foul, walking to midcourt with a hand raised to acknowledge the foul, but also seeming to herald that nothing, absolutely nothing would come easily.
As much as the Rockets’ astonishingly bad shooting made the game a spectacular blowout in what was supposed to be a showdown of Western Conference contenders vital to the race for seeding, the Clippers had their way with the Rockets until finishing off a 120-105 beatdown in the Rockets' most discouraging flop of the season.