Nets vs. Rockets made less sense than any other NBA game this year

The Nets and Rockets played a wild game that featured 100 combined three point attempts, 287 total points, two blown leads in crunch time, and a hectic final six minutes. It was improbably the game of the night despite Boston and Toronto going toe-to-toe at the same time.

In the end, it was Brooklyn’s sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie who carried his team to a 145-142 win in overtime with late-game heroics that mirrored Tracy McGray’s memorable 13-points-in-33-seconds explosion years ago. In a game where Houston attempted an NBA record 70 three-pointers, somehow it was Brooklyn who came out on top.

Wait, the Rockets shot how many threes?

Seventy. Seven Zero. Yes, you read that correctly.

The previous record for three-point attempts in a game was 61, also set by Houston. The Nets attempted 36 triples on the night, too, so this was the first time 100 threes were attempted in any NBA game.

We’ve known for a while that Houston is three-point trigger happy. The Rockets have 30 games with at least 50 three-point attempts, far and away more than any other team in NBA history. The next team, appropriately, is Brooklyn, with four.

But there’s something about shooting so many threes and only making a handful of them. Houston shot 23-of-70, or 32 percent from deep. Brooklyn shot 44.4 percent (how appropriate) on 36 attempts, while supplementing that attack with plenty of paint points.

On the same night, the Pelicans and Warriors combined for the most three-pointers made in NBA history. Golden State shot 24-of-49, while New Orleans shot 19-of-37. For perspective: the Pelicans and Warriors combined for 20 more threes made than the Rockets on just 16 more combined attempts.

That’s unreal. It almost doesn’t make sense.

James Harden was unstoppable, again

He did it again — and by it, I mean went off for another 50-point game. Not only was it his second consecutive game with 55 or more — Harden became the only other player to put up back-to-back 55-point games since Wilt Chamberlain — but his streak of scoring at least 30 points tied Elgin Baylor at 18 games.

Unreal stuff is happening in Houston.

What’s bizarre about this, though, is that Harden and Mike D’Antoni are firmly committed to iso ball. This is an outrageous stat.

He’s getting his buckets by straight up taking his man one-on-one. Every. Single. Time. On one level, it’s fun to watch. On another, it’s strange to call this basketball.

Houston blew an eight-point lead with a minute to go in regulation

That’s because Spencer Dinwiddie came alive at the right time. The Nets’ sixth man hit not one, not two, but three consecutive three-pointers to sent Brooklyn to overtime — all in a 30-second time span.

In all, Dinwiddie scored 19 points in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter.

The shot that sent it to overtime was a ridiculous, contested bomb from 29 feet out.

Then the Rockets blew another lead

Houston led by seven with 1:28 to go in overtime after Harden found new signing James Nunnally for an open three. It looked like the Rockets were going to put this one away.

But then Dinwiddie rose to the occasion, again. He assisted on a Treveon Graham three and a Jarrett Allen layup before hitting the and-one layup that gave Brooklyn its first lead since the third quarter.

Dinwiddie added seven more points and two assists in overtime. He finished with 33 points and 10 assists off the bench on the night.

Wednesday night’s Brooklyn vs. Houston matchup wasn’t expected to be this wild. In a game between James Harden and a lower-seeded Eastern Conference playoff team, you usually go with the guy who has a habit of scoring 50 points. If that team with a 50-point threat also gets up 70 threes in a game, you probably pick them again. If that same team is leading by 14 with six minutes to go, and is up eight with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the smart betting man still sides with them. And if somehow that team goes to overtime and leads by seven with a minute-and-a-half left, the betting man probably still puts his money on that team winning the game.

Conventional wisdom went out the window Wednesday night. The smart betting man likely lost all his money. Nets vs. Rockets made no sense whatsoever.

But it was fun as hell to watch unfold.