If Chris Paul ’s right hamstring is too damaged for him to impact the rest of this series, then the Rockets ’ huge Game 5 win will wind up being a Pyrrhic victory. (Getty)

Chris Paul has fought for 13 years to get to this point — to have the opportunity to play for a berth in the NBA Finals, to find himself on the verge of the last barrier he hasn’t yet crossed in his illustrious professional career. He’s here now; he’s brought the Houston Rockets to the doorstep. It seems downright cruel that he might wind up having to limp across the threshold.

Eric Gordon scored 24 points off the bench, including a huge 3-pointer with 1:21 to go and two clutch free throws with two seconds remaining, as the Rockets survived another wild finish to beat the Golden State Warriors, 98-94, in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday. The Rockets now lead the best-of-seven series three games to two, and can advance to the NBA Finals by beating the Warriors at Oracle Arena in Game 6 on Saturday.

But despite Gordon’s performance, all eyes were on Paul during the second half … and all eyes will be on him as the scene shifts back to the Bay Area.

For the second straight game, Paul turned in a brilliant finish. After missing his first seven shots on Thursday, he got cranked up in a major way, scoring 18 of his 20 points after intermission to go with seven rebounds, six assists and three steals in 38 turnover-free minutes, helping lead the Rockets to within one game of the franchise’s first NBA Finals since 1995. But Paul’s heroics may have come at a dear, dear cost.

Chris Paul appears to aggravate hamstring injury late in 4th quarter pic.twitter.com/ZymxtH0J6Q — gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 25, 2018





Paul spent the final 22.4 seconds of the game on the sideline after injuring his right hamstring on a spinning drive into the lane against Warriors guard Quinn Cook, leaving him down in the paint and clearly in pain as Golden State ran back on offense. The Warriors couldn’t capitalize, as Cook — a former G Leaguer who earned minutes and Steve Kerr’s trust as a stand-in for Stephen Curry during his late-season knee injury — missed an open 3-pointer that would’ve given Golden State a two-point lead. (Cook, a 44.2 percent 3-point shooter during the regular season, took three shots on Thursday, all open 3-pointers — one at the end of the first quarter, one at the end of the third, and the last with 42 seconds to go. They all missed. It’s a cold game sometimes.)

With Paul on the bench for the duration, the Warriors had two more chances to steal a game in which they once again struggled mightily to consistently generate good looks against a locked-in Rockets defense. They squandered both.

Curry rattled a short runner in-and-out with 13 seconds to go over the defense of James Harden and the flying help of 6-foot-5 center P.J. Tucker. (Who, by the way, was a monster once again, scoring eight points, grabbing nine rebounds and mucking up Golden State’s offense with his timely help defense; the Rockets outscored the Warriors by 14 points in his 42 minutes of floor time.) In the scramble for the loose ball, Draymond Green had a chance to pull down the offensive rebound, and perhaps put in a layup that could’ve put Golden State on top. Instead, he tapped the ball back out toward the perimeter, where Trevor Ariza picked it up, forcing the Warriors to foul and send him to the line.

After Ariza missed his second free throw, Golden State got another crack at it, trailing by two with 6.7 seconds to go. But because they’d made a pass after the rebound of the missed free throw, they weren’t able to automatically advance it to half-court, meaning they had to go the length of the floor to get a look at an equalizer or a winner.

And when Curry threw the ball to Green on the move heading up the floor …

DRAYMOND TURNOVER

ROCKETS RECOVER pic.twitter.com/g8k5Y8BTpx — Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) May 25, 2018





… Green fumbled it, allowing Gordon to steal the loose ball as the clock ticked down.

Green finished with 12 points, 15 rebounds and four assists in 42 minutes of captaining the Warriors’ defense. He scored their final five points, answering Gordon’s big 3 with one of his own on the ensuing possession to keep Golden State within striking distance late. But the final-seconds bobble capped a rough close to the game for Green, who committed six of the Warriors’ 18 turnovers while trying to force passes to would-be cutters swallowed up by Houston’s switch-everything defensive scheme, got a hoped-for dunk inhaled by Clint Capela (who was awesome in the first half, and finished with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting, 14 rebounds and two swats) and couldn’t seem to get right when it mattered most: