Poor shooting helps Pacers push past Rockets

It was encouraging to see Eric Gordon return to the Rockets' lineup after extensive time off. There wasn't much else that went well for Houston in the latter half of their back-to-back.

A combination of poor defense and even worse shooting hampered the Rockets greatly in their 108-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday afternoon.

James Harden, returning after taking the first game of the back-to-back off, was hot early. Through nine minutes in the first quarter, he recorded nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals, shouldering a majority of the offense in Russell Westbrook's absence.

Robert Covington, who struggled mightily shooting the three so far in the bubble, managed to score two quick long-distance bombs to get him an early six points.

The Rockets rode Harden's quick start to an early lead in the first quarter, but a 17-5 run by Indiana cut their lead down to two with a minute left. It was Eric Gordon who halted the run, capitalizing on a strong first quarter back with an and-one jumper that pushed him to seven points in the period, second most behind James Harden.

The sloppiness evident in their last game against San Antonio carried over to their game today. Houston gave up eight turnovers through sixteen minutes, and got off to an 0-8 start in the second quarter. Their struggles would contribute to Houston's lowest scoring quarter since the season restarted, being held to 17 points total. They shot an atrocious 33.3% from the field, and an even worse 25% from three.

Things didn't improve much in the third quarter. The Rockets turned the ball over nine more times in the third, bringing their total turnover count up to nineteen. The shooters were ice cold, and James Harden was forced to carry the offense, scoring 15 of the teams 27 points during the third.

Eric Gordon managed to reach 11,000 career points during the period.

Despite the horrid shooting, Houston managed to claw their way back into the game with a few minutes remaining, cutting the lead down to two with a few minutes remaining. However, the streaky shooting would prove too costly of a trend, putting a wrap on the game and granting Indiana the victory.

James Harden was superb, going for 45 points on the day with a career-high 17 rebounds, to go along with nine assists and three steals. He shot an extremely efficient 62% from the field, and a scalding 7-14 from three. Unfortunately ,his teammates weren't able to pick him up -- Rockets not named James Harden shot a collective 19-65 from the field (just under 30%), and an even worse 9-43 (20%) from three. Hopefully it's a simple outlier, as that kind of shooting will not win games in the playoffs.

The Rockets have an off day tomorrow before playing their final seeding game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.