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Diving into the fourth quarters of both losses to Lakers
Like it or not, things feel a little different when the Los Angeles Lakers come to town. The Toyota Center featured quite a bit of purple and gold over the last two games — those clad in it made their presence known.
"There's too much pride in my heart to let an opponent just come into our arena and take over and have the loudest cheers of the evening," Rockets public address announcer Jonathan Sanford tweeted early Thursday morning. "I will NEVER be okay with that!"
Houston went 0-2 in those games, both won by the Lakers in the fourth quarter.
Late in the first game, Los Angeles short-circuited Houston's offense with aggressive double teams to star forward Kevin Durant. They continued that strategy in the second matchup and kept Durant quiet for the first half.
A halftime adjustment by Coach Ime Udoka to have Durant work off-ball more often, paired with quicker decision-making from the forward, led to an explosive third quarter where he scored 13 of his 18 points.
But Durant was quieted again late, taking just two shots in a fourth quarter where Houston shot just 42.9 percent from the field. Meanwhile, the Lakers shot 72.2 percent behind the seemingly unstoppable Luka Doncic.
Durant said his low shot attempts in the fourth weren't a "talking point" — Udoka said it was often because Los Angeles turned the forward into a distributor, with the attention he drew opening up opportunities for others.
While it's probably always better for Durant to take the bulk of Houston's shots, the Rockets did generate efficient offense after he returned to the game for the last four minutes.
Jabari Smith Jr. missed three open threes — a catch and shoot chance from the right corner, another above the break when his man left him to double Durant and a third where he took one dribble before firing.
Reed Sheppard, who went 3-for-8 from deep, also missed an open three generated after his man lunged at Durant.
That shot came with 2:18 left with Houston down four, plenty of time to come back and win. But the Rockets wouldn't attempt another field goal until they were down nine points with about 23 seconds remaining. In between came two turnovers.
The first was from Alperen Şengün, who drew help on a drive and tried to kick out to an open Sheppard but just sent the pass a few inches left. The second was an ill-advised full-court pass from Durant to Şengün, who was double covered and couldn't gather the ball through contact.
While it's a difficult loss for the Rockets with potentially major ramifications — Los Angeles wins the season series and has the tiebreaker for postseason seeding — it felt like Houston found strong offensive answers against a team they may see again in the playoffs.
"This is the best version of their defense that they gonna bring out against us. So if we do play them again … we got film to watch and learn from," Durant said, "but that's pretty much the only option they can present to us to slow us down."
 | Varun Shankar, Rockets Beat Reporter |
Durant on recent Achilles tendon tear recoveries
We're nearing the seventh anniversary of Kevin Durant's Achilles tear, nearly seven years from the moment where he stopped mid-move and began hopping around with an injury that for so many years had been seen as perhaps the worst in the sport.
In the immediate aftermath of the injury Durant said he, like so many others, looked at it as "the career-ender."
It obviously wasn't — Durant has been an All-Star in each of the six seasons since his return. The 2025-26 season has also seen two prominent returns from that same injury: Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray.
Both have been effective since, including Friday when Murray dropped 35 points in the Pelicans loss to the Rockets on Friday.
"I'm just so proud and so happy for him," Durant said of Murray. " … He looks like he hasn't missed a beat."
Durant's gloomy initial outlook on the injury came from a lack of knowledge, he explained. Getting in the room with "real experts", who let him know he'd be fine in a few months, calmed him down.
His return, especially as an older player, served as an example for other players experiencing similar things — Durant viewed that as a point of pride.
"It's taking the fear out of everybody who steps on the court and thinks, 'Alright, if I get this Achilles injury, I might not be the same," he said. "Look around the league."
Durant on WNBA, players union reaching deal
Durant also offered his thoughts on the WNBA and its players union reaching a new CBA agreement, which will raise the salary cap and lead to substantial rises in player salaries.
"Very excited for the ladies. Long-fought negotiations and I know it was a stressful times for W fans and W players and executives, everybody in the W, who follows the W. I'm glad they got it done," he said. "Sometimes business takes this long to settle. So I'm glad we will have a WNBA season coming up. Also pretty cool they gave more money because everything's better in the league now."
Worth a read
- 〽️ The Rockets have been up and down and have clear flaws. Good news — so does the rest of the middle tier in the Western Conference.
- 🌴 Observations from the Rockest second loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
- 🤧 I was sick on Monday so Sam Warren covered what unraveled into a disastrous fourth quarter for Houston.
- ⚜ How did the Rockets erase a four-point deficit in 31.8 seconds against the Pelicans?
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Q: What's the strategy in everybody just watching whoever gets the ball play iso instead of cutting, slashing or going for a rebound? — u/Still-Standing
A: The Rockets do some of the off-ball actions mentioned above — you don't have the league's best offensive rebounding rate and second-best since Steven Adams' injury without doing so. Amen Thompson is one of the most active and productive cutters in the NBA, slashing behind or through the defense to generate easy shots at the rim.
But the questioner is correct in noting that the Rockets offense does get stagnant at times, with four players watching the ball while one — often Durant or Şengün — tries to create an open shot for themself or draw a second defender in the process.
That, Udoka explained, is in part to maintain efficient spacing and in part to adhere to player preferences.
"Certain guys like [it] stationary to see everything in front of them. Others want movement," he said. " … Take it back to playing and coaching Tim Duncan or Lamarcus Aldridge … Joel Embiid as well. A lot of guys don't like the chaos moving around. They like to see where the outlets are at."
I just think it's neat!
The Rockets used a new pick and roll coverage against the Lakers, Şengün said, calling it a "one step show up".
Houston had Şengün come up to the level of the screen to contain a potential Doncic drive for a second, allowing the defender chasing the guard over the screen to recover, before backpedaling to contain the rolling big man.
It worked at points — Doncic had to settle for multiple semi-contested stepback three-pointers — but not consistently.
"Our guards and wings got cracked too easily and it was too much separation," Udoka said.
Late in the game, Doncic began splitting the brief double-team, creating essentially a five-on-three for Los Angeles to pick apart.
"Have to be into the ball more, kind of string him out and not let him split there," Udoka said.
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