Atrocious second half evens series at 2-2 with Thunder

After Thursday, the series looked to be well in hand. After Monday, the exact opposite is true -- It's officially a series now.

After notching wins in Games 1 and 2, Houston was handed a crushing Game 4 loss on Monday afternoon to even the best-of-seven series with the Oklahoma City Thunder at two apiece.

It couldn't have been a tighter game during the first half. A high-scoring barrage saw both teams drop 30+ points in the first quarter, with Houston leading 37-35 after the first. Harden got off to his best start of the series, scoringo a quick six points after 5 1/2 minutes, and ending the quarter with a line of 15 points, two rebounds, and four assists on 5/6 shooting and 3-3 from three.

Houston overall was torrid from three to start, going 8-15 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. OKC followed suit, however, hitting six threes on five fewer attempts compared to Houston.

Whereas Houston had Harden taking on a bulk of the scoring, OKC had Dennis Schroder getting the ball in the hoop with efficiency. Through just under 14 minutes of action in the first half, the German guard had 15 points on 5-8 shooting.

The half came to a close with the two teams nearly perfectly knotted -- OKC shot 48% from the field compared to Houston's 49%, en route to a 60-60 tie after two quarters. Harden led the way for Houston with 19 points at the break.

The Rockets exploded out of the gate to start the third quarter. They quite literally could not miss, going 8-8 from three point land to open a 15 point lead midway through the third quarter. Eric Gordon in particular was almost unconscious from the field, going 4-4 with 11 points to begin the third.

Everything fell apart after the shooting streak stopped. The Thunder rallied to cut the deficit to ten with just over two and a half minutes remaining in the third, and finished the quarter on a 13-0 run to reduce Houston's lead to merely one entering the fourth quarter.

Houston doomed themselves afterwards, never able to recover the hot shooting they had previously. Houston went on to shoot 19 threes in the final twelve minutes, and only made four of them. Meanwhile, the Thunder lit Houston up defensively, as Chris Paul feasted on midrange jumpers to close the game out for Oklahoma City. He and Dennis Schroder combined for 56 points in the victory.

The series turns into a best-of-three now, and one has to think that Mike D'Antoni will employ co-star Russell Westbrook to try and close the series out for Houston, even if it means bringing him back earlier than the team would have liked. Houston shot a record 58 threes in the loss.