The Ghost of Rudy Gay’s Past made a visit to Sacramento Thursday night and the result wasn’t pretty. While inefficient chucking may be in his rear-view mirror, he’s still not totally immune to performances like the ones he was famous for in Memphis and Toronto. Thursday night against the Houston Rockets, Gay turned into Toronto Gay, shooting a woeful 4 of 18 from the field, and only making one shot in overtime — a garbage time bucket that ultimately had no effect on the outcome.
In fact, the highlight of his night was a shoving match with Patrick Beverley, where — for a moment — everyone sensed the diminutive point guard might actually try and fight the 6-foot-8 small forward. Alas, to the disappointment of basketball fans everywhere, Rudy didn’t clock Beverley (note: nobody likes Patrick Beverley), as cooler heads prevailed.
Meanwhile. James Harden did his typical James Harden thing, Eurostepping and free throwing (13-15 from the line) his way to 44 points, while adding 8 assists and 4 rebounds in between. In overtime, Harden couldn’t be stopped. At one point, he’d outscored the Kings 9-1 all by himself. To even get to overtime, Harden had to nail a deep three, right in…wait for it…Rudy Gay’s face. Sacramento couldn’t respond in regulation, and then Harden finished the Kings off practically all by himself in the extra frame.
In all fairness to Rudy, the Kings are still without DeMarcus Cousins, so he’s shouldering a lot more of the offensive load than he normally would. But Harden is without Dwight Howard, who, while not a #1 option on offense, at least frees up room for Harden to operate. It didn’t matter Thursday. Even though the Rockets had to dig themselves out of as much as a 12-point hole in regulation, the final score (113-109) was not indicative of the overtime, as a barrage of desperation threes by the Kings brought the final margin closer than it appeared.
