PORTLAND, Ore. – It only took three minutes.

After getting past the anticipation and emotional high of Kevin Durant passing Wilt Chamberlain to take seventh place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list Friday night, the Houston Rockets finally locked in.

Durant was hitting shots. Reed Sheppard was making plays. Houston seized control of the game and entered the fourth quarter with a 13-point lead.

Then, with Durant on the bench, Portland wiped that lead away in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter with a quick 11-0 run. The momentum shifted in the blink of an eye.

Rockets coach Ime Udoka hoped to get his 37-year-old superstar some rest while his team was ahead, but he quickly had to sub Durant in with nine minutes left, aiming to preserve the win.

Instead, the Rockets ended the fourth scoring 15 points on 6-of-28 shooting. They went 1 of 17 from the 3-point line. Instead of pulling off a strong road win to lift the team’s spirits, the Rockets saw another close game slip away on the road as the questions about this group’s ability to execute during pivotal moments are only getting louder by the day.

“You take a 37-year-old out of the game for (three) minutes, and you lose a 13-point lead — 11-0 run. That’s what went wrong,” Udoka said. “You don’t play with any aggression or confidence. (We were) mentally weak.”

To be fair, a few factors were going against the Rockets on this particular night. It was basically the fourth straight game Alperen Şengün has missed after injuring his right ankle in the first minute of a loss against the Dallas Mavericks a week ago. Houston also lost starting forward Tari Eason to a sprained right ankle early in the third quarter of Friday’s loss, which left Udoka with even fewer options on the bench.

In the end, the Rockets’ offense cratered as Portland stormed back, and the Rockets couldn’t find a way to stop the bleeding.

The Blazers threw multiple bodies at Durant every time he touched the ball, and his teammates got plenty of good looks because of all the attention Durant was drawing, but they couldn’t get any shots to fall.

As easy as it is to dismiss games like this by saying, “It’s a make-or-miss league” or “It would’ve been different if we made shots,” these cold-shooting nights are becoming a trend for the Rockets.

Over the last four games with Şengün out of the lineup, the Rockets have shot a combined 37 of 158 on 3-pointers. That’s 23.4 percent from distance. It’s tough for any team to win when you’re bricking that many open looks.

What makes it an even bigger concern is that Houston’s reliance on the outside shot has gone up substantially with Şengün sidelined.

Through the first 31 games of the season, the Rockets were an extremely low-volume 3-point shooting team, averaging 30 attempts per game, but they were knocking them down at a 40 percent clip.