For 68 prolonged seconds, Houston Rockets center Alperen Şengün could only watch from the sidelines as his team gradually let go of the rope at the most inopportune time. The large video screen hanging from the ceiling of T-Mobile Arena indicated the semifinal was anything but over — the Oklahoma City Thunder were clinging to an 84-79 lead with more than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Through the game’s first nine minutes, the Thunder scored only nine points. Through 12, the teams combined to shoot 13-for-47, including 4-for-22 on 3-pointers. They had nine turnovers, which weren’t debilitating to either squad because nobody was capable of turning even the mistakes into easy points.

LIVE UPDATES: Thunder vs Rockets score today: OKC-Houston live updates, highlights in NBA Cup semifinal Justin Martinez: OKC 115, Houston 106 Houston earned a 119-116 home win over OKC on Dec. 1. It took Fred VanVleet scoring a season-high 38 points for ...