The Oklahoma City Thunder’s poor first quarter set them back, but Dennis Schroder’s excellent second quarter allowed them to catch up to the Houston Rockets and trail 48-45 at halftime of Game 5.
Schroder had 11 Thunder points in a row midway through the second quarter, cutting a five-point deficit to a three-point lead almost single-handedly. Right after his run, Schroder assisted a Lu Dort layup to give the Thunder a 41-36 lead, their biggest of the half.
Houston quickly caught up, as James Harden made six quick points to give the Rockets a lead.
At the half, Schroder had 19 points and Harden had 20.
As integral as Dort has been this series, the Rockets took advantage of his offensive struggles by allowing him to shoot. Dort attempted 11 shots in the first half, most of which were open, and he only made two. He went 0-for-7 from deep.
That’s how the Rockets took the first-quarter lead. Nine of Dort’s shots came in the fist quarter, including six of his seven 3s. At the end of the first, Oklahoma City was down 24-14.
A much better second quarter brought the Thunder’s shooting percentage up to 35.4%, far too low but not too much worse than the Rocket’s 39.6%.
Steven Adams had eight points and 11 rebounds in the first half. Danilo Gallinari went scoreless on four shots.
Rockets forward Jeff Green, who played extremely well off the bench over the first four games, did not have a point in 15 first-half minutes.
Russell Westbrook played 14 minutes in the first half of his return to the court. He had four points on 2-for-8 shooting to go with four rebounds and assists apiece.
Westbrook is supposed to be on a restriction of 28 minutes in Game 5.
