Injuries, KD's struggles, and clutch woes derailed the Rockets' playoff run, leaving fans to ponder "what could have been."
Coming into this postseason, it looked like the Rockets had an easy road to Round 2. Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic were expected to miss the beginning of the series at a bare minimum, but the playing field was evened up a bit before Game 1.
Houston’s advantage shrunk when it was announced Kevin Durant would miss the start of the postseason after injuring his knee in practice.
Now with half of the All-Stars out, the KD vs LBJ matchup was off the table. I joked about it before on Roundtable, but it seemed like we might actually get the illustrious battle between Deandre Ayton and Clint Capela at this point.
That’s when Houston’s playoff outlook took a turn for the worst. While KD was able to return for Game 2, it was a bit of a disappointment in all reality.
He only shot twelve times and had nine turnovers to go with his four fouls. It would also be the last game he played this season, potentially his last game in a Rockets uniform, a question pondered on Roundtable.
It’d be up to the young core to handle business at home, and in a very painful end of game situation, they managed to blow a virtually must win game.
In hindsight, it’s not the worst thing in the world considering these are the learning curves that youthful teams have to go through. But as you may know, no team has ever won a playoff series after trailing 0-3. Not a promising stat for the Rockets.
They did have a promising performance to avoid getting swept though, as covered on Roundtable. They scored their most points of the postseason, which was really impressive with Durant sidelined.
While the Rockets were able to spread the wealth and come away with another victory in Game 5, I honestly did get a little nervous at the end. With Houston’s struggles in the clutch (even with Durant in the game), I think everybody had reason for concern.
Uncharacteristically clutch free throw shooting helped seal the deal, despite some costly turnovers and second chance points making the final minutes closer than it ever should’ve been.
I discussed those rebounding issues here on Roundtable, primarily concerning Deandre Ayton’s dominance. He was making a big impact and would need to be slowed down going forward.
You can see a short recap of how the Rockets fell short and failed to keep Los Angeles off the glass, resulting in a Game 6 loss.
Now rather than having the chance to forever be in the history books, Rockets fans are just wondering what could’ve been. Their team could’ve joined the trio of Game 7’s this weekend, but I guess it just wasn’t their season, as Rafael Stone might say.