The Rockets tried hard tonight, but they had no answer for Luka Doncic, who helped the Lakers come out on top 124-116 in Houston. While the Lakers pushed their winning streak to seven games, Kevin Durant’s team has now suffered consecutive losses against the team in purple and gold.
Following the game, Durant spoke to the media and addressed whether teams can do anything to stop Luka Doncic on a night like this.
“He gets the ball every play; he’s going to get his points. He’s going to shoot whatever he wants; he can dribble all game, he pretty much controls the whole game for the offense they run, the type of player he is. He can do this every night, it’s that simple,” said Durant.
“With the amount of usage he has, and the minutes he plays, and how talented he is, he could do this every night. The point is, Bron 13-for-14, 30 points. They got 30 points from Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton [combined]. You can still beat Luka if he gets 45, 50, or 60 points; we’ve seen this before.”
“But when the other guys come in and start knocking down shots and being aggressive as well, a lot of that is based on the attention he draws, but when the other guys get going too, that’s what makes them even tougher to stop,” Durant said in conclusion.
Durant seems to feel that had the Rockets stopped the Lakers’ other options instead of focusing their defense on Doncic, they would’ve had a better chance to beat the Lakers, no matter how many points Doncic scored alone.
The Slovenian superstar finished the game one rebound shy of a 40-point triple-double as he had 10 assists and nine rebounds to go with his 40-point outburst. He shot 12-25 from the floor (48.0 FG%) and 7-17 from the three-point line (41.2 3P%).
Meanwhile, Durant struggled to find rhythm due to the Lakers’ pressing defence that forced double teams on him throughout the game. After only scoring two points in the first half, he scored 13 of his 18 points from tonight in the third quarter.
But the Lakers managed to shut him down down the stretch as he took only two field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter. The 37-year-old veteran finished with 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists, shooting 7-11 from the field (63.6 FG%) and 2-5 from beyond the arc (40.0 3P%).
Kevin Durant Hints Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves Are Defensive Weaknesses
Earlier in the press conference, Durant also sounded a bit off on the Lakers’ defensive strategy throughout the game.
Considering that the Rockets could end up in the sixth seed and the Lakers could finish in the third seed, these two teams could meet in the first round of the playoffs. So a reporter asked Durant to preview the potential playoff matchup and key positive takeaways for the Rockets.
“We’ve seen their only option to try and stop us is to double-team me at half court, as soon as I get the ball. As I said, we got pretty much a lot of the stuff that we wanted,” said the Rockets’ veteran.
Subsequently, he took a cryptic shot at Doncic and Reaves as defenders, hinting that he couldn’t hunt down their matchup tonight, but if the Lakers allowed that, Durant would have scored much more than he did tonight.
“This team is not a great defensive team, but when you give them opportunities to like, double and play in zone, not have to guard players. Luka, Reaves, a lot of people go at them, but when you double-team and play the zone behind, then it makes their life easier.
“We found some stuff too. This is the best version of their defense that they got out against us, too, so if we do play’em again, I’m not thinking about it, but if we do, then we have film to watch and learn from. But this is pretty much the only option they can present to us to slow us down.”
While Durant gave Doncic his flowers, he felt that the game boiled down to the Lakers making four more three-point shots than the Rockets tonight. If the Lakers did not constantly double-team him, he would have sought and exploited the matchup with Doncic or Reaves.
And had the Rockets focused on stopping other key offensive contributors like Austin Reaves, LeBron James, and Deandre Ayton, he feels they would have won this game and can pull it off in the future. The Lakers have improved to 44-25 for the season and are now headed to Miami to face the Heat tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, the Rockets fell to 41-27 for the season and are now going to host the Hawks on Friday night, March 20. It will be a nail-biting matchup if these two teams end up meeting in the playoffs.
