The Houston Rockets evened the Western Conference finals at 2-2 on Tuesday night. Despite trailing by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, their defense tightened up and led them to a critical 95-92 win over the Warriors. But there was no shortage of drama in the closing seconds.

The madness came late when, after a James Harden miss with just over 12 seconds remaining and Houston clinging to a 94-92 lead, Kevin Durant pushed the ball up the floor and found Klay Thompson open on the baseline. Trevor Ariza immediately closed on Thompson in the corner, and Draymond Green signaled for a timeout at the top of the key but wasn't granted one. Instead, Thompson settled for a fadeaway that fell flat.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr lamented the scrambling final sequence after the game.

"Well, I wanted the timeout," Kerr said. "Draymond was trying to call one around 4 seconds, once he got trapped. And at that point the officials weren't looking, and they're not going to look down at our bench. So I saw Draymond trying to call it and I was hoping they'd give it to us, but we didn't get it."

A timeout may or may not have made a difference; it's impossible to predict. But it's hard to imagine the Warriors getting a more wide-open shot than the one Curry missed out of a timeout with 0.5 seconds left on the clock.

Golden State's faulty execution down the stretch is what ultimately led to their Game 4 demise, and now they must travel to Houston for Game 5 on Thursday with the series tied 2-2.