Even now, more than seven months later, those two words cause Rockets' stomachs to turn and hearts to ache.

Point nine.

That's all that needs to be said for the memories to be clear again. Point nine. The images of the defensive breakdown, the Trail Blazers' improvisation and most of all, Damian Lillard's sublime 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded all become as clear as if that replay was flashing before the Rockets again.

They knew immediately that the split second would define their season and live on. The highlight has taunted them again and again with reminders of the final nine-tenths of a second of their playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers when a two-point Game 6 lead was turned into a stunning one-point loss and the Rockets were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.

The Rockets left Portland that night knowing they would never be together again. Their chance to take their series home for a Game 7 and they still believe to a longer playoff run had crashed and burned.

They vowed to use "point nine" to motivate them, to drive those players who remained through this season and into the next postseason chance at redemption.

More Information Second thoughts Everyone on the court and the bench remembers the circumstances leading to Damian Lillard's winning 3-pointer that ended the Rockets' season at 10:28 p.m. May 3 in Portland:

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For now, with the Trail Blazers due at Toyota Center on Monday night, long after the Rockets came nine-tenths of a second short of bringing them there, the visions of that final split second in Portland remain clear:

Chandler Parsons, former Rockets forward: I got the little tip-in that put us up … and then there was a timeout. At that point, there was .9 seconds on the clock, and we knew they could get a shot off in that amount of time because it's happened before.

Chris Finch, Rockets assistant coach: It certainly wasn't calm. We had to calm those guys down and get refocused as fast as possible. In that microsecond (following Parsons' basket for a two-point Rockets lead), the shift of the series flashed before everybody's eyes.

Jeremy Lin, former Rockets guard: I was like, "Oh, we won, the game is over." I didn't even know there was .9 left until the timeout.

Terry Stotts, Trail Blazers coach: All we had was a 20-second timeout. We had to get everybody together and tell what we were doing. Our team was always good at running timeout plays. The set we ran was the same set both times (before and after the Rockets took a timeout). They made an adjustment. First they had Dwight Howard on the ball, then they took him off the ball. We were looking to throw over the top to LA (LaMarcus Aldridge).

J.B. Bickerstaff, Rockets assistant coach: We called the extra timeout to get people organized and to see where they lined up and to get people on certain people. It was a matter of being prepared when the ball was inbounded. There was still discussion going on. It was a recognition on their (the Trail Blazers) part because obviously the play was designed to try to get the ball to LaMarcus in the post for a 2 to send it to overtime. But they recognized the mistake and tried to take advantage of it. We discussed it.

The biggest threat was a 3. Where guys should have been on the floor was above the 3-point line. If they get a tough 2, you go to overtime. If they hit a 3, over.

Finch: There weren't a lot of guys talking about strategy. Mac (Kevin McHale) was pretty much the only voice. We were obviously saying "no 3s, no 3." The plan was to not switch. We felt that if we could get on top and force the cuts down, we were pretty confident they were going to go to LaMarcus. What they actually set up doing was kind of what we anticipated, to clear the side and try to lob it to him.

Lin: Worst-case scenario was overtime because we said no 3s.

Parsons: We wanted to make it tough on them and make them take a tough shot. I remember we were all matched up and at the last second, we were going to switch everything. I remember I switched on to Lillard on the bottom.

Finch: James (Harden) told Chandler to get on Lillard knowing we were not switching and he would be a bigger guy on the catch. It was a decision they made in the moment.

Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers guard: The play was actually for me and the other two guards to take off and go to the other side of the court and make our defenders react that way and then try to throw the lob to LA (Aldridge) to force overtime.

Dwight Howard, Rockets center: I was on LaMarcus Aldridge. I was focused on not letting him score. I was locked in, so I didn't even know what was happening until it happened.

Lillard: When I stepped on the court, Mo Williams kept telling me "Go to the ball, go to the ball." I was like, "That's not the play." He was like, "I don't care. Go get the ball." Once I saw the guy guarding the inbounds (Terrence Jones), his body was opened up, he wasn't really denying the ball from coming right in, I was like "I can get a shot right there." I was just watching the referee after that to see when he was going to blow the whistle. They were still communicating how they wanted to guard the guards. The referee blew the whistle, and I just took off. Nico (Nicolas Batum) was looking for what we drew up. I had to get his attention, so I clapped at him a couple times.

Nicolas Batum, Trail Blazers forward: I heard him (Lillard). He was clapping. I wasn't looking at him. He screamed my name, "Nico, Nico." He clapped his hands. I turned. I saw him wide open.

Finch: Batum looks disgusted when he makes the pass because it was the only option he had and he knew it wasn't the play.

Stotts: Dame (Lillard) made a great recognition. He saw Parsons and Harden talking. He caught them off-guard and was able to sprint to the ball. I was looking at LA, at how he was guarded. It wasn't looking good. Howard had him. It wasn't open. Then it all happened so fast.

Bickerstaff: There was no screen. He recognized the confusion and just ran to the ball. There was no need or cause for a switch. Probably at the end of the play because of what happened, there should have been an emergency switch because of the way the play was set up. James was the last man in the stack. If he saw it, he should have made the emergency switch. But to me, the bunch action shouldn't have been that much of a threat.

James Harden, Rockets guard: He was just too open. He got loose.

Parsons: The fact that he even got that look … we could have done a lot more differently. To his credit, he hit a ridiculously tough shot, fading away, 2-3 feet behind the 3-point line with less than a second on the clock. I mean, it was just an incredible shot.

Harden: It was a great shot. He had a good look, and he knocked it down.

Lillard: I knew I got it off in time. As I was watching it, I remember the buzzer go off as I was watching the ball in the air. I knew it was good.

Finch: As soon as it left his hand, I knew it was in. It just looked good in the moment. Mac said to me, "Did that just go in?" Not for verification, but like, I can't believe that just happened.

Bickerstaff: We saw what Damian Lillard saw and how he was able to get open and the miscommunication that was going on on the floor. You knew it was good. Sickening.

Lillard: In my head, it didn't even register until everybody ran up to me and stuff started falling from the ceiling that the series was over. When I made it, I was like, "We won this game." Then I realized it was the series-clinching game. That's when my energy level and everything went through the roof.

Batum: We know if he misses the shot, we go back to Houston for Game 7. Momentum is on their side. It's going to be a tough one. I was like, "Please make it. Please make it." When he made it, I was surprised at first. Then everything went crazy. It took me like five, 10 seconds to realize, "We did it." All six games were crazy. That was a great, great series against them. Every game could go either way. A great series.

Bickerstaff: As soon as he caught it, it was good. You knew it was good. I know some of those guys on the Portland staff, so I went over and congratulated them. I went back in the locker room and people were disgusted about how it happened. Guys were saying, "We said no 3s; we said no 3s." It was emotional at that point. It wasn't said, but I guess we knew it was the last time we were all going to be together. We all kind of knew it. We knew with the makeup of our team and as aggressive as our guys are trying to improve our team, we thought we ended up short of what we could have done. We thought we were in the perfect side of the bracket, too. We had San Antonio next and even though it was the regular season, we beat them four times. We had the Clippers and Oklahoma City on the other side, teams we struggled with. We thought we had an opportunity to do something special but we didn't take care of business.

Stotts: In my 20-something years in the NBA, that was the best series I've been involved with as far as every game going down to the last minute, overtime games. The final score was like a difference of two points. (The Rockets outscored the Blazers 672-670 in the six games.) It was a remarkable series.

Parsons: It's a big shot because of the meaning of the game. It was the playoffs. It was an elimination game. It allowed them to advance and ended our season. I think the best game-winners are the ones with the biggest stakes, and the Finals or a playoff makes it bigger than ever. This was up there with any I have ever seen, just with what was at stake. They eliminated us and moved on. Obviously the difficulty of the shot was pretty high, too. It was just a really great shot.

Howard: There have been a lot of great shots in this game, and it was hard to be on the other side of one that way.

Lillard: As a kid, before I walked away from the court, I always counted down, like I was making the game-winner. That was one of those times, in a playoff series, facing another road game against a good team, and you just kind of just kill it. You finish them. There's no better feeling. Even though a championship is our ultimate goal, at the time, at that moment, it will never be better.