At a timeout with 4:27 left in the game, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Corey Brewer and Andrew Bogus walked off the court with a swagger.
Plenty of time remained on the clock, but they had an eight-point lead over the explosive Houston Rockets and everything seemed to be going their way. They were outmuscling the Rockets for rebounds, they were contesting and disrupting their three-point shooting. They weren’t playing like a 10-win team missing two starters.
It took a shorthanded scrappy group of players who tend to show off against the toughest competition to finally stop the Houston Rockets.