- [Clara] It's September 2nd, 2020.
We're in the NBA bubble.
Virtually. We're virtually in the NBA bubble.
It's do-or-die in Game 7
of the opening-round playoff matchup
between the very clutch "how dare you doubt us" Thunder
and the three-point-happy
"it's our time for a ring" Rockets.
The Rockets lead by one with the clock ticking down.
The next five seconds will determine who's going home
and who is extending their stay
at the Walt Disney World Resort
in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Lots going on. Let's rewind.
(pensive music)
Chris Paul is over here, wearing an OKC jersey,
not saying hello to any of his teammates from last season,
because they're the enemy now.
The previous two seasons, Chris Paul was on the Rockets.
They got him with the intention
of amassing weapons for a fight to a championship.
They were tired of being eliminated
by Golden State and their cavalcade of stars.
The plan for the 2018 season:
lean into their trailblazing offense.
Houston practically eliminated the midrange shot
in favor of the more high-percentage layup
or the more valuable three-pointer.
They really liked shooting threes.
Paul and Harden meshed well.
Each had a formidable iso game and knew when to use it.
Harden won MVP and the Rockets finished first in the West.
Uh-oh, Warriors.
In the Western Conference Finals,
Houston went up on Goliath three games to two.
But Chris Paul got hurt and missed Games 6 and 7.
And in Game 7,
the Rocket's three-point-first strategy failed them.
Live by the three, die by the three.
Then keep shooting threes after you're dead,
'cause what do you have to lose?
Pride? The game?
The season? Oh my god, so much.
In the 2019 season, Chris Paul struggled with injuries,
and at 33 years old, he looked like he'd lost a step.
Suddenly he didn't want to play iso ball that much.
How about more set plays? Maybe some screens?
Well, Harden was having an incredible season
and comfortable not changing the offense.
The Paul-Harden relationship started to fray.
Paul would pester Harden, trying to coach him,
and they'd end up snapping at each other.
In the Western Conference Semis,
fortune favored Houston over the champs.
Game 6, Kevin Durant was out hurt,
and Steph Curry was cold and got into foul trouble early.
But Houston couldn't capitalize
and blew what was probably their best chance
at taking down Golden State.
And with that, their title window was proclaimed shut.
Harden needed more help
than the slowing, fragile, mid-30s Paul could give him.
After the 2019 season, Paul was proclaimed washed up.
So over the summer, the Rockets traded him to the Thunder,
a young team about to rebuild.
The Thunder were given a 0.2% chance
of making the playoffs in 2020.
Paul wasn't expected to do much other than be disgruntled,
but it's hard to predict the future.
With Oklahoma, CP3 had a resurgence.
He thrived as a leader among youth.
What Harden saw as pestering
looked more like leadership in OKC.
And Paul led the league in clutch points.
In fact, the Thunder were the most clutch team in the league
and it wasn't just 'cause of Paul.
They ran a deadly three-point-guard lineup
with Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The three-headed monster was very hard to defend,
and unlike Houston, lived for the midrange jumper.
Through March 11th, the Thunder were tied with Houston
at fifth in the West.
But, uh, now it's September.
Weird time to be playing playoff basketball.
On March 11th, 2020,
the NBA shut down due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
It wouldn't restart until the end of July,
when the pandemic was still raging, but the NBA had a plan.
22 teams entered the bubble at Walt Disney World Resort
in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
What is the bubble?
A closed environment for NBA players and staff
with more safety protocols than the CDC
is recommending for the country.
Regular testing, no coming and going,
covers on referees' whistles.
They thought of everything.
The players live in Disney hotels,
the food isn't ideal,
but there are ping pong tables and video games and fishing,
and of course, basketball.
There are no fans,
but there are also no positive COVID-19 tests thus far,
so it's weird, but it's working.
Oklahoma went 4-4 in these unprecedented conditions,
which gave them a fifth-place finish.
Not bad for a team that was predicted
to be helmed by a pouty vet and totally miss the playoffs.
And here they are on the verge of a second-round berth.
But hang on.
If the Rockets traded away Chris Paul,
who'd they get in return?
This fellow right here.
Which is surprising, because for 11 years,
Russell Westbrook was the frenetically beating heart
of the OKC Thunder.
Alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden,
he led the Thunder to the 2012 Finals.
When Durant ditched OKC for Golden State
in the summer of 2016,
Westbrook took the opposite approach,
pledging loyalty to the team
he'd been with his whole career.
The recently spurned fans
fell deeper in love with Westbrook.
In 2017, he made it official.
Right after he signed,
the mayor made every day Russell Westbrook Day.
I guess it wasn't a school-canceling holiday,
so he could do that.
Westbrook thrived as the city's darling.
He was MVP in 2017.
He averaged a triple-double three years in a row.
Why did the Thunder end up trading this guy?
Well, while Russ was impressive, the team was stalled.
Even when they gave Russ a co-star,
OKC couldn't get out of the first round of the playoffs.
And in the summer of 2019,
Paul George said he wanted a trade,
which signaled rebuilding time in Oklahoma City.
In exchange for George, the Thunder received a solid scorer,
a second-year player with a lot of potential,
and a ton of picks.
So what was Westbrook gonna do,
stick around and lead a buncha kids?
Nah, Chris Paul can do that.
Russ wanted to join a contender.
Off to Houston to team up with old pal James Harden.
And suddenly the Rockets' title window cracked back open.
It helped that the superteam
lost a few of their super friends,
but didn't help that at the start of the season,
Russ struggled.
At least James Harden was a scoring machine,
that was actually on the fritz and scoring too much.
And then Russ got better,
partly because he stopped shooting threes
and focused on getting to the rim,
and partly because Mike D'Antoni decided to experiment
with spacing out the offense by getting rid of their center.
It was an experiment in true small ball
that earned some large numbers from the backcourt.
The Rockets again led the league
in threes attempted and made.
They went 40-24 outside the bubble
and 4-4 inside, exactly the same as OKC.
But because they won their division and OKC didn't,
Houston took the fourth seed and got home-court advantage.
Which is a moral victory this year.
These virtual fans are rooting for the Rockets.
But despite watching from their individual homes,
I bet, at this very moment,
Rockets fans everywhere let out a collective "No, God, no!"
because of who has the ball.
Luguentz Dort.
I'll explain.
After a year at Arizona State,
Lu Dort declared for the 2019 draft.
And why not? The Pac-12 had heaped awards at his feet.
He was already built like an NBA player.
And sure, he wasn't a great shot,
but why bring that up in all the excitement?
Dort worked out for at least 10 teams
and was projected as a late first-round pick.
But as we've seen before, it's hard to predict the future.
Dort went undrafted.
There was a consolation prize.
OKC wanted to sign him to a two-way contract,
which meant he'd split his time
between the G League and the NBA.
He could play up to 45 days in the NBA,
but would not be eligible for the playoffs.
It's not how Dort imagined his entry to the NBA would go,
but it was better than nothing,
and OKC really believed in him.
General manager Sam Presti wrote him a note which read,
"Draft night is not the end of anything;
This is the beginning of everything,"
which makes Sam Presti seem like a wonderful person.
Why was OKC so into Dort?
His defense.
In January, Terrance Ferguson got hurt
and Dort found himself starting for the Thunder.
He did so well, when Ferguson got healthy,
Lu kept the starting spot.
It was all about his defense.
Sure, his offense wasn't great,
but his D more than made up for that.
His breakout game was January 20th,
when he held the usually prolific James Harden
to teeny-tiny numbers.
Oh, by the way, Lu was doing all this
without practicing with the team.
Remember that 45-day limit in his contract?
Can't let practice days eat those up.
He just had to watch film and start games.
That's not an easy position for anyone to be in,
let alone a rookie who took a blow to his confidence
on draft night.
In June the Thunder finally signed him to a proper contract,
making him eligible for not only practice
but also the playoffs,
where his first assignment was a familiar face.
Could Dort stifle James Harden again,
on a larger, more important stage?
Game 1 would not answer that question.
Dort was out hurt.
Houston won big.
But considering we're currently in a tight Game 7,
Houston clearly didn't keep up that level of dominance.
Which everyone outside of Houston might be happy about,
'cause people kinda love to hate James Harden.
Look, James Harden is very good,
but he still gets a lot of criticism.
Why isn't he more popular?
Well, he's arrogant, as evidenced in this recent interview.
- The All-Star Game is a collection
of the NBA's best players. - Yeah.
- Where do you think you rank in that right now?
(James chuckles)
- What do you mean? - Where do you think you rank
among the NBA's best players right now?
- I feel like I'm the best player.
- [Clara] He also draws a lot of fouls,
which at best is boring to watch,
at worst means he egregiously flops
instead of playing basketball.
Here's an example.
2013, Clippers at Rockets.
Blake Griffin kinda touches him.
Oh, whoa! Did he actually shock him with a cattle prod?
Continuing with his faults,
Harden isn't know for his hustle.
Rather, he sometimes plays such lackadaisical defense
you have to see it to believe it.
Here we go. 2015, Rockets at Knicks.
Slide your feet, put your hands up.
No! Not it a blaming-your-teammates motion.
And one of the biggest points of criticism against Harden:
he disappears in the postseason.
It started in the 2012 NBA Finals, when he was on OKC.
It continued in 2015 with the Rockets.
The reputation was cemented in 2017
with a 39-point loss to the Spurs.
In 2018, Harden was like,
you can pour more cement on already set cement.
This year, at age 30,
paired with a second expensive All-Star guard,
Harden needs to show up.
He thinks he's the best player in the league?
Prove it.
He kinda did in Game 1,
when Dort was out hurt.
Game 2, Dort was back,
and, well, it looked like James Harden
was gonna have a difficult series.
Game 3 hammered home just how much Dort was doing.
He took a breather for less than two minutes,
and while he was out, Harden scored nine points.
Only issue?
Dort's offense.
In Game 5, the Rockets basically didn't guard him,
and even wide-open Dort couldn't hit.
Game 5 also saw Westbrook return from injury.
He upped the Rockets' energy,
and broke out his rock-the-baby celebration.
Which I don't totally get, because in reality,
when you're trying to rock a baby to sleep,
the parent is at the mercy of the baby.
You can be be rocking that baby for like 45 minutes to no result.
Anyway, Rockets won that one big.
Tonight, in do-or-die Game 7,
Dort's defense is still so good OKC has to keep him in,
even though Houston is again leaving the rookie open.
At first, Dort responded by passing up open shots,
but Chris Paul pestered and/or led him,
and the kid started firing away, and hitting,
and hitting and hitting and hitting.
With four and a half minutes left,
Dort hit a three to tie it up at 99.
Looks like it's time for the clutch OKC
to show us what they can do.
Oh, god.
Gross.
The clutch king himself nearly threw it away
in the final seconds.
But SGA recovered it and found Dort,
the bizarrely hottest hand in the game.
And here we are. Five seconds left, the season on the line.
Dort, not usually the world's best shooter, squaring up.
Harden, not usually the world's most enthusiastic defender,
sprinting at him.
If Dort hits,
OKC's overachieving season will soar even higher,
they'll be declared the winners in the Paul-Westbrook trade,
and the undrafted Dort will put a cherry
on top of his career game.
The Rockets need this shot to miss
to keep their title hopes alive,
hopes that have been dashed for years and years.
Harden in particular needs a stop to stave off the hordes
waiting to denounce him as a playoff no-show.
And also 'cause he thinks he deserves a ring.
Can't be eliminated in the first round and get a ring.
Welcome to a moment in history.
- [Announcer] Dort for three.
Blocked by Harden!
Dort got it back.
Tried to throw it off Harden and missed him!