James Harden, Rockets try to be first to come back from 0-3

HOUSTON – On the night before the Houston Rockets' resilient spirit would reappear in the Western Conference finals, their bearded and beloved star, James Harden, attended the concert of a man whose biggest hit set the perfect tone for their moment at hand.

"Started from the bottom, now we're here," the line goes from the wildly popular song by rapper Drake.

The Rockets, who overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western semifinals and won Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors on Monday to stave off elimination again, have quite the habit of being at their best when there's nowhere to go but up. They hit rock bottom in Game 3, getting embarrassed on their home floor in a 35-point rout that was a white-flag effort if ever there was one.

But as has been the case all season, through injuries to key point guards and big men, there was a Rockets revival that no one but them saw coming. And while the notion of Houston winning a do-or-die game on its home floor shouldn't have shocked anyone, the way the Rockets did it came as a surprise. There was the scorching shooting performance that included a 45-point first quarter (tied for most in a first quarter in playoff history), a 17-for-32 effort from three-point range that more than tripled their previous game's output and Harden scoring a playoff career-high 45 points in ruthless fashion.

So now that they're here, with Game 5 coming Wednesday at Oracle Arena, can the Rockets become the Boston Red Sox of the NBA by being the league's first team to win a seven-game series after being down 3-0? Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is hoping so, and he tried to set a tone with his tweet heard 'round the Twitterverse after the Game 3 loss Saturday.

Morey, who was with the Boston Celtics when the Red Sox became the first baseball team to overcome a 3-0 deficit by beating the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series, posted a YouTube clip of Dave Roberts' stolen base in Game 4 that started it all. After his Rockets won Game 4, Morey was channeling his motivational side again, tweeting "dum spiro spero #pursuit." The Latin phrase means "While I breathe, I hope."

They're still breathing all right, but just barely.

All 116 NBA teams that have faced a 3-0 deficit in a seven-game series have ultimately lost, with 34 forcing Game 5, 10 forcing Game 6 and three forcing Game 7. For the Rockets, it's the history and Golden State's home floor that present such a daunting task. The Warriors, who haven't been to the Finals since winning the franchise's only championship in 1975, have won 45 of the 48 games played on their home floor since the start of the regular season.

Yet if Harden is going to play the way he did in Game 4, the old Kevin Garnett adage from yesteryear might apply – "Anything is possible!" he so memorably screamed after the Celtics won it all in 2008. Harden was clearly upset with the way he had played in Game 3, when he missed 13 of 16 shots and was badly outdueled by league MVP Stephen Curry (40 points, seven assists, five rebounds).

Harden skipped his media obligations Sunday, choosing to keep his inner thoughts to himself. By the time Game 4 arrived, Harden – who has taken part in 71 playoff games over the course of six seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Rockets – sprinted out of the Toyota Center with a bounce and a roar that led to the best postseason performance of his career.

His timing was impeccable, too, as Harden took his game to the next level just as Curry was returning from the frightening fall that kept him out of the action from midway through the second quarter to midway through the third. Harden scored 33 points in the second half, hitting 10 of 15 from the field.

"He was extremely unhappy ( Sunday), and (he) took it out (on the Warriors), but that's what you've got to do," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "You've got to take it out on them. It doesn't do any good to take it out on the trainer and your teammates and your coach. You take it out on the other team, and he did it. He went out and he played a hell of a game."

Said Harden: "Right now, our mind-set is 'take one game at a time.' ... Obviously it's going to be in a hostile environment, but we've been there twice and we've had opportunities to win Game 1 and Game 2. We've got to play the same way (in Game 5). Obviously, they're going to make a run. They're a really good team, a really good shooting team. The faster we can snap out of it and not allow them to get 11- or 12‑point runs, we'll put ourselves in a good position to win the game."

They started from the bottom, yet again, and they're still here. The Rockets' revival continues.