The Houston Rockets have been building momentum since returning from the All-Star break, but their latest performance is proof that there are still some major vulnerabilities. Following a 115-105 loss to the Miami Heat on Saturday, Kevin Durant spoke honestly about what went wrong and where his team should look to make adjustments if they want to maintain a top-four position in the West.
“I feel like they just played zone and sat in the paint and dared us to shoot,” said Durant in a chat with the media after the loss. “They gave up a lot of open shots. I feel we had some great looks but didn’t knock ’em down. 9/36 from 3. I was 2/8. I gotta be better. Tari hit a couple of open ones, and I feel like we got a couple of good looks. I just felt like they kind sold out to stop us in the paint, and it paid off for them tonight.”
Durant said he has to be better, but his play was the only thing keeping the Rockets in the game. In 37 minutes, he finished with 32 points, five rebounds, eight assists, zero steals, and two blocks on 60.0% shooting (2-8 from three). Besides a turnover and poor three-point shooting percentage, Durant was excellent in this game, and it still wasn’t enough for the Rockets to beat an inferior opponent.
As Durant pointed out in the press conference, it was zone defense that interrupted the Rockets’ rhythm and threw everything off balance. For whatever reason, they had no answer for the Heat, and their offense struggled as a result, shooting just 43.2% for the game. In hindsight, packing the paint was the perfect approach to beating a Rockets squad that relies so heavily on the inside. For Houston, while it was only one regular-season loss, it was also a showcase to other teams on how to nullify their scoring.
Nevertheless, despite their underwhelming record (37-22), Durant is still confident that the Rockets can beat any team. Where others saw a failure to adjust today, Durant saw plenty of missed opportunities that could have flipped the game if they had gone the other way. In a seven-game series, it’s going to be harder to contain the Rockets and far riskier to trust that their shooters will miss consistently.
But as the playoffs draw near, Durant knows how important it is to iron out the kinks before the stakes get high. By vocalizing their areas of struggle now, Durant hopes to bring them to the surface so that his team can develop a plan that makes them even better.
