Now Introducing The Saddest Picture Of A Winning Team's Bench In NBA History

Check out the excitement from the guys on the Rockets bench... pic.twitter.com/EvQVrT8mDn

— Sean Farnham (@SeanFarnham) April 22, 2016

Holy shit, it's actually worse than I thought. My headline sounds like hyperbole, but it doesn't even do justice to just how much the Rockets' collective heart sank when their "leader" made the eventual game winning shot. Spare me the "there was still time left, they weren't going to celebrate until they actually won" line of thinking. The Houston Rockets DO NOT get that benefit of the doubt. Not when their reaction to this shot embodies every ounce of apathy that they brought with them to the hardwood this season. You can't use the fact that there was 2.7 seconds left on the clock to justify not even cracking a smile when your best player drains a go-ahead bucket with a heroic individual effort (as if it would be any other kind of effort from this team). 

Terrance Jones looks like he just found out the midterm was today while he was walking into the classroom. Corey Brewer looks like he just spotted his ex-girlfriend in the club with the man she was cheating on him with. That pity clap at the end was the kind of applause you give when you think the sermon is over at Sunday mass before realizing there's still like 6 psalms to go (That's how church works right? Whatever, close enough). Credit to Dwight Howard for not putting on that counterfeit grin he used to rely upon for sympathy so often. He stayed true to himself by staring at the JumboTron with a look that said "please activate Steph for the last shot". Clint Capela looks like the only guy on the team that doesn't realize that James Harden just EXTENDED the series. The rest of the team looks like they were about to head out of the office and the boss just dropped a whole new pile of files on their desk. The Houston Rockets are somehow back in the series, and their instinctual reaction to it was "great, more work". If looks could kill James Harden would have put the finishing touches on the "people die in 3's" narrative. Call me crazy, but I'm not ruling out that he made that shot strictly to spite his teammates.