On Wednesday night, the Houston Rockets defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 104-102, advancing to the second round of the playoffs. They will now face the Los Angeles Lakers, with Game 1 tipping off on Friday evening.

In the final seconds of Game 7, James Harden stepped up and made a huge play... on the defensive end, shockingly. Harden blocked a potential game-winning three by Lu Dort. After Dort recovered the ball, he tried to throw it off of Harden and out of bounds, but Harden dodged it and forced a turnover to seal the win. Watch the play here:

Harden struggled on the offensive end for much of the night, finishing with just 17 points (shooting just 4-15 from the field and 1-9 from three) to go along with 9 assists and 4 turnovers. However, he stepped up defensively with 3 blocks and 2 steals, giving him a team-high plus/minus (+9). 

However, Robert Covington gets the game ball for Houston, as he finished with a team-high 21 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks (while shooting 7-15 from the field and 6-11 from three-point range). Russell Westbrook bounced back after a rough Game 6 to chip in 20 points, 9 rebounds and 2 turnovers.

While Dort wasn’t able to hit the game-winner for OKC, he had the game of his life. He had a game-high 30 points, 6 threes, 4 rebounds and 1 block on 50 percent shooting from three-point range.

Chris Paul contributed 19 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds, 3 threes and 2 steals. At 35 years old, he became the oldest player to have a triple-double in a Game 7. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also chipped in 19 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 threes and 2 steals in the losing effort.

Nobody expected the Thunder to make the playoffs this season - not after trading Westbrook, Paul George and Jerami Grant last offseason. If anything, the general consensus was that they’d tank and continue to trade off their veterans (such as Paul, Dennis Schroder, Steven Adams and Danilo Gallinari). Not only did OKC shock everyone and make the playoffs as the fifth seed, they came within seconds of beating a talented Rockets team and advancing to the second round.

Entering these playoffs, the fourth-seeded Rockets were a sexy pick to go on a deep playoff run. Now, after nearly going home in the first round, can Houston bounce back against the heavily favored Lakers?