The Houston Rockets traded for Kevin Durant this offseason, bringing a veteran leader and offensive superstar to the team. While the pair have been good for most of the season, things didn’t go so well on Monday night.
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The Rockets lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 92-100. This is the second time in the past three games that Houston has failed to reach 100 points. The team also struggled to shoot from distance, shooting only 19% from beyond the arc.
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While Durant pointed to the latter issue after the loss, he placed much of the blame on himself, saying, “I lost the game for us tonight,” ESPN reported.
“I just felt like we lost the game tonight,” said Durant, who scored just two of his 18 second-half points and committed seven of the Rockets’ 24 turnovers. “It’s as simple as that. Sure, we could probably take more threes, but that’s up to me. I mean, honestly, I’m the offense and the other team is going to use all their resources to not make me feel comfortable.”
Durant ended the game with 18 points. He made 8 of 16 shots from the field but was 0 of 3 from beyond the arc. He also gave up the ball too many times, turning the ball over seven times.
Most of those struggles came in the second half, when the Lakers began double-teaming Durant. He went 1-for-5 from the field in the second half and committed six of his seven turnovers when the Lakers began to apply more pressure.
The Rockets need to find a way to defeat this strategy in time for the playoffs. The Rockets sit first in the Western Conference with 41 wins and 26 losses. However, in order to pull off some upsets in the playoffs, when opposing teams start sending multiple resources to the future Hall of Famer, someone other than Durant needs to step up.
