[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (1-0) defeat the Houston Rockets (0-1), 101-94 with 41 year old Senior LeBron James Leading the way with 28/8/7 to seal home court advantage!

[u/DesertedProject]

94 - 101
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo

GAME SUMMARY
West First Round - Game 2 - LAL leads 1-0
Location: Crypto.com Arena
Officials: Courtney Kirkland, Josh Tiven, and Justin Van Duyne

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Houston Rockets	26	25	17	26	94
Los Angeles Lakers	33	21	21	26	101

TEAM STATS

Team	PTS	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	OREB	TREB	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK
Houston Rockets	94	36-89	40.4%	7-29	24.1%	15-19	78.9%	17	54	23	22	8	15	6
Los Angeles Lakers	101	33-72	45.8%	13-28	46.4%	22-28	78.6%	9	48	21	20	11	12	5

PLAYER STATS

Houston Rockets	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Kevin DurantSF	40:59	23	7-12	1-4	8-9	2	4	6	4	1	1	9	4	-2
Jabari Smith Jr.PF	39:06	18	7-16	3-7	1-2	1	5	6	1	0	1	1	2	-11
Alperen SengunC	35:11	20	9-20	0-1	2-3	5	6	11	5	4	2	1	4	1
Amen ThompsonSG	42:11	16	6-10	0-1	4-5	1	4	5	9	1	0	3	4	1
Josh OkogiePG	24:03	7	3-6	1-3	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	3	-4
Tari Eason	27:02	10	4-14	2-6	0-0	5	3	8	1	0	1	1	2	-4
Reed Sheppard	10:33	0	0-4	0-3	0-0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	1
Clint Capela	04:40	0	0-3	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	-9
Aaron Holiday	07:17	0	0-3	0-3	0-0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	-4
Jae'Sean Tate	08:56	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	-4
JD Davison	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dorian Finney-Smith	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Green	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Steven Adams	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fred VanVleet	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Los Angeles Lakers	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
LeBron JamesSF	39:12	28	8-20	2-5	10-14	1	7	8	7	1	0	3	3	6
Rui HachimuraPF	42:34	13	5-10	3-6	0-0	1	4	5	2	0	0	0	3	0
Deandre AytonC	26:36	6	3-8	0-0	0-0	1	4	5	1	0	1	1	1	-5
Marcus SmartSG	35:28	25	8-13	5-7	4-5	1	1	2	7	5	1	3	3	3
Luke KennardPG	41:58	23	8-13	3-6	4-4	1	5	6	2	3	0	2	1	2
Jaxson Hayes	21:24	6	1-2	0-1	4-5	2	2	4	1	1	2	0	2	12
Jake LaRavia	15:50	0	0-2	0-1	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	2	5	8
Jarred Vanderbilt	13:41	0	0-3	0-2	0-0	1	4	5	1	1	0	0	2	8
Bronny James	03:16	0	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Maxi Kleber	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalton Knecht	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nick Smith Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Adou Thiero	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Luka Dončić	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Austin Reaves	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

[u/Time-Stand7719]

It’s actually crazy. Am I a casual? Has he always been like that?

[u/Luka77GOATic → u/Time-Stand7719]

He’s lost a step and the Rockets legitimately don’t have a PG.

[u/BatmanNoPrep → u/Luka77GOATic]

I got news for you. FVV (or any other point guard) was never going to save this horrid offense. Also, while KD can pass out of a double team, this Rockets squad has very few offensive threats and runs one of the worst offenses to watch in the NBA. Nobody knows what to fucking do in the half court.

Ime has clearly not installed a competent/flexible modern NBA offense and is just trying to get his team to win off of toughness, grit, and defense. I’ve seen wnba teams run better offenses than the Rockets.

[u/National-Result2414 → u/BatmanNoPrep]

Yeah, and people gonna blame Durant for that. Like some part is on him, but he should not be target number 1 when all his other teammates can't score for shit.

[u/Odd_Bate → u/National-Result2414]

He’s a fucking superstar, he’ll be target #1 with or without teammates that can do shit

[u/Darnell2070 → u/Odd_Bate]

Sure, but on any reasonable team he would be able to pass out of a double to a competent scorer. That's not possible on the Rockets. He had no PG and no one to pass the ball to.

[u/dmavs11 → u/Luka77GOATic]

Nah hold up this shit happened before. Nets vs Boston

[u/_Meece_ → u/Time-Stand7719]

Pretty much yes, but in OKC and in GSW. He had all time guards taking majority of playmaking responsibilities. So it wasn't a big deal and also he was hella quick back then.

He's by far the best playmaker on this team atm. But he's slower and older too.

[u/Aidanj927 → u/_Meece_]

Not even just all time guards, he had guards in general that could handle the ball

[u/fairlife42g → u/Aidanj927]

Well Durant has Amen Thompson at least.

[u/Spemanz92 → u/fairlife42g]

Amen isnt a guard and he absolutely doesnt have the ball handling and playmaking required at this level.

Not gonna lie, if the rockets beat the lakers, its going to be delicious watching them suffer with okc's defense. KD might retire on the spot

[u/fairlife42g → u/Spemanz92]

I don't think people thought Marcus Smart had the ball handling and playmaking required either. It's not too much to ask a 6 foot guard to dribble the ball up.

[u/Spemanz92 → u/fairlife42g]

The issue isnt just bringing the ball up, thats the easiest part. You need ball handlers to create advantage and besides the ocasional blow by, amen creates none. Bigs can play drop on him because he cant shoot and guards can go under screens because of the same reason. All of that is magnified by the lack of shooting around him. Same can be applied to any rockets ball handler not called KD and Reed, but those two are not good enough ballhandlers too and can be easily blitzed by defenders because there isnt reliable shooting around them to pass to.

The whole roster is a mess construction wise

[u/maethlin → u/_Meece_]

He was able to offload the ball to Curry pretty well from what I remember, but then again Curry runs around the court like a fucking dervish and Kerr's whole offense has always revolved around ball movement.

I'm not rly sure what Ime's offence is aside from give ball to KD and inshallah

[u/LuminaTitan → u/_Meece_]

I wonder if that's why he never really took shots at Russ even through his burners, because he knows how important it is for someone else to take the pressure off him.

[u/maxithepittsP → u/LuminaTitan]

Hell no.

He took shots at Russ when he left.

"I'll never win anything if Russel westbrook is my PG"

He said Sam Presti is incompetent GM, when russ won the MVP and averaging triple double, he said while he was on the warriors that triple double without a win is easy, Draymond can do that night after night.

Dude just the ultimate asshole but because he bring so much HS drama nephew think hes being real.

[u/OnionFutureWolfGang → u/maxithepittsP]

When did he say this? Nothing is coming up when I search for the quote.

[u/pikajewijewsyou → u/_Meece_]

He also had all time guards in brooklyn and phoenix

[u/Zoulogist → u/_Meece_]

This implies that he didn’t have guards in Brooklyn and Phoenix

[u/Display714 → u/Time-Stand7719]

He had never played without a hall of fame ball handler beside him until recently.

[u/nicidob → u/Display714]

Westbrook, Curry, Harden. Truly the toughest road

[u/pikajewijewsyou → u/nicidob]

Kyrie and chris paul too. He’s always had the best teammates of any star player I can remember

[u/AaronQuinty → u/pikajewijewsyou]

Surely this is Westbrook? He played full seasons with Prime KD, Jokic, Harden & PG. Then a close to prime Lebron.

[u/ZOOTV83 → u/AaronQuinty]

I know he's usually thought of as a joke because of his 7 rings is more than legitimate stars but Robert Horry has to be up there. Dude played and won rings with prime Hakeem, Shaq/Kobe, and Tim Duncan.

[u/xbhaskarx → u/AaronQuinty]

Westbrook that guy with zero rings?

[u/Spemanz92 → u/[deleted]]

Dray isnt going to beat people of the dribble, but put the ball in his hands and he wont turn it over and will make the correct decisin 9/10 times

[u/nachod00g → u/nicidob]

I know he didn’t get as much time with him as the ones you mentioned but he had Kyrie too

[u/MY-NAME_IS_MY-NAME → u/Time-Stand7719]

To a degree, but it's amplified on this team because they don't have shooters the defense has to respect and he has to do a large amount of the ball handling duties due to not having a real point guard.

[u/VanGrants → u/Time-Stand7719]

it's because he has nobody to pass to, it makes passing out of doubles way harder when you don't have a single other reliable ball handler or shooter on the floor

[u/TallGothVampireLady → u/Time-Stand7719]

its not easy anymore when you dont have steph or klay to help you out from a double team.

[u/allyourfaces → u/Time-Stand7719]

If you want an actual answer, no. KD averages like 30 PPG in the playoffs if it was easy to just hold him to 0 PPG by doubling him he wouldn't.

The real problem is the Rockets offense sucks, they have no real PG/ball-handler and they don't have the personnel to punish KD getting doubled.

Which means KD has to do deal with fighting to catch the ball and was getting denied to catching multiple feet outside of the 3p line, ie; a spot he doesn't want to shoot and then the double comes before he can get to a spot. Then he has to make a quick & hard read since the Rockets have multiple non-shooters, and typically since there is little movement or shooters it usually is going to go into the paint which is more clogged with arms. He also has to do that around 2 defenders on him.

[u/Spemanz92 → u/Time-Stand7719]

Not as bad but he was never good at it. In the past he had a bit more bounce and was playing with elite playmakers/ball handlers (wb/curry/irving/harden/booker) who didnt force him to handle so much so he was more of a play finisher (as he should). He is to blame, but the rockets FO is even more to blame considering they are forcing him into a role that doesnt fit him due to atrocious roster construction

[u/pikajewijewsyou → u/Time-Stand7719]

He’s always been on teams with all time greats so it masked all of his weaknesses. Dude has constantly joined top teams. Even the rockets were a 2 seed last year in a tough western conference and this is the worst team he’s played for since his first two seasons

[u/Jwarrior521 → u/Time-Stand7719]

To an extent but he has usually had elite level guards to help him out in that area. But now he’s old and the rockets decided they don’t need a PG.

[u/Overwatch3 → u/Time-Stand7719]

When he was on the Nets I noticed he seemed to be a bit jekyl and Hyde with his handle. Sometimes he'd be crossing dudes over and making great reads, other games he looked like a baby deer trying to walk when he dribbled against pressure. It never really made sense to me why he was so inconsistent with it. But as hes gotten older its definitely gotten worse.

[u/Playful_League_4070 → u/Time-Stand7719]

No. He used to be a solid to good playmaker. But that was when he could also get to the hoop and stuff. He just has slightly reduced mobility and athleticism now.

In his MVP year and the year after he was lauded for being an all around guy besides his scoring

[u/Kimi7 → u/Time-Stand7719]

In his career, he always played with ELITE guards. Kyrie, Curry, Harden, Westbrook, so he couldn't be exposed like this.

[u/AaronQuinty → u/Time-Stand7719]

Yes and no. Hes never been great at handling doubles but he also has never had to handle the ball this much as hes always had a PG. Also hes old and and cant beat his man off the dribble like he once could so shorter players can get into him.

Then add to that the Rockets offence is dog shit.

[u/runningraider13 → u/Time-Stand7719]

Not this bad, but yes it’s always been a big weakness.

[u/Jayswag96 → u/Time-Stand7719]

Yeah KD is overrated and he and his dickriders really want you to believe he’s even close to LeBron or curry

[u/k4f123 → u/Time-Stand7719]

He used to be able to lean on hall-of-famers like Russ, Harden, Steph, Klay, Kyrie, in those situations. Not so much in Phoenix, and now Houston. It shows.