Houston blitzed OKC from the opening minutes, scoring 16 straight in less than three minutes before constructing a 23-2 run to open a 17-point cushion midway through the first period. Adding insult to ineffectiveness, it was James Harden who was responsible for much of the damage, scoring or assisting on 14 of Houston’s 23 points in that span.

The Thunder had five days between its last contest and Thursday’s highly-anticipated showdown, time in which the team was supposed to get right, ironing out its defensive deficiencies and offensive ruts while integrating recently-acquired guard Dion Waiters. Whatever improvements took place over those five days sure didn’t play out on the Toyota Center court.

“It’s not really Xs and Os,” said center Kendrick Perkins. “It’s just got to be a willpower from each guy; a commitment. It’s enough talking about it. We just got to go out there and do it now. We got to be better.”

“We have to start the game better,” said Kevin Durant. “For me as the leader, I have to make sure we start games better. I can’t afford to come in here and say that after every game. We can’t dig ourselves a hole like that and it starts with me.”

Houston made six of 10 3-pointers in the first quarter alone, continuing the Thunder’s troubling trend of getting torched from beyond the arc. The Rockets finished with 16 3-point makes on 36 attempts.

“Teams are hitting shots on us,” Durant said. “They’re spreading us out. Our defense is to get into the paint, but once teams start hitting 3s on us naturally we start to shift out a little bit and that’s when they start getting layups. Sometimes it’s tough luck on our part. But sometimes it’s just better offense beating great defense. But I think the effort is there, the energy is there. Sometimes they’re just better than us.”

OKC has now allowed teams to shoot 82 of 183 from 3-point range, a mind-boggling rate of 44.8 percent, over the past six contests. Opponents are stroking long-range shots with confidence in both transition and in halfcourt sets, finding open men on drive-and-kicks or through simple ball movement.