The Lakers’ trip to Houston could hardly have gone better. Facing two important games in the playoff race, LA took care of business with a pair of statement victories.
In the process of doing so, they also sent Kevin Durant off the deep end in a couple of different ways.
First, on Monday, Durant was at the center of the Rockets’ fourth quarter meltdown. The Lakers spent the fourth quarter sending multiple defenders at KD to force the ball out of his hands. When KD himself wasn’t turning the ball over,
the rest of his teammates look so befuddled by the concept of double-teaming the ballhandler that they, too, tossed the ball out of bounds.
In the postgame, KD was left pondering what he should even be doing on the basketball court.
That fourth quarter performance from KD saw him turn the ball over twice and shoot just three times as part of a second half in which he was 1-5 from the field with six turnovers. Given that the two teams were playing one another two nights later, one would expect a bounceback performance.
Instead, KD went 1-3 in the first half on Wednesday, with two more turnovers, meaning across the last four quarters against the Lakers, he was 2-8 with eight turnovers.
Eventually, he got things going in the third quarter and scored 13 points as the Rockets came roaring back into the game. But, again, when it was closing time, KD disappeared. Durant went 1-2 in the final period with yet another turnover as the Rockets lost again to the Lakers.
This time around in his postgame press conference, he more or less called the Lakers a one-trick pony defensively.
This might carry any sort of weight if the Rockets haven’t had the exact same problem in fourth quarters of close games all season long. The Lakers did not reinvent the wheel by doubling KD and forcing the ball out of his hands. They just followed the lead of basically every other team.
So, sure, the Lakers gave the Rockets film of how they’d defend them, but it’s the same type of film Houston has had all season long. In March, you shouldn’t need film to address problems that existed in November.
That’s also to say nothing of the Lakers having different approaches defensively this season, whether it be a zone or the doubling of the ball they showed this week, among others. One of the reasons the Lakers have had success defensively as the season has gone on is that they have different looks to throw at teams, and their defense is continuing to evolve and improve.
The Rockets, meanwhile, are not evolving and improving. In fact, they’re plummeting down the standings. After two losses to the Lakers, Houston is the No. 5 seed and just percentage points ahead of Denver in the six seed. They are now as close to LA in the three seed as they are Phoenix in the play-in.
But don’t worry, folks. Once Houston starts watching film, it’s over for the rest of the league!
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
