Houston, we have a problem.
Not the kind of problems you solve with a late-game isolation or a pull-up three. Not the kind that Kevin Durant was brought to Houston to try and fix.
The problems currently facing the Rockets run much deeper than one player can solve or homecourt advantage can cure.
Right now the Rockets’ locker room feels fractured. You can see it in the body language, through every forced possession and argument on the bench.
Houston isn’t just down 0-2 after a101-94 loss on Tuesday night to the shorthanded Lakers. They’re unraveling in real time.
And here’s a newsflash for you: This didn’t just come out of nowhere.
A month ago, when the Rockets were in the middle of a 6-8 stretch, Rockets’ legend Vernon Maxwell went on the “All the Smoke” podcast and said out loud what everyone else in Houston was thinking.
“Guys don’t like to high five each other no more,” said Maxwell speaking to the fractures inside the team that may have been caused from the rumors that spread about Durant’s burner account criticizing his teammates. “Nobody want to bump chest no more with each other. Everybody just spilt up the whole team… It’s a lot of s— going on out there in Houston.”
Durant returned from a knee injury, and that should have fixed everything.
The Rockets biggest problem without him in Game 1 was scoring. Durant is an instant fix for that.
Instead, it magnified the cracks. He finished with 23 points, but scored just three in the second half, and had a career-high nine turnovers. He’s committed a total of 20 turnovers in his last three games against the Lakers.
“We just not making shots,” said Durant who had more turnovers than field goals made. We not shooting the ball well, we getting good looks. We missed a lot of layups. That’s the difference in the game.”
That’s not just rust. That’s dysfunction meeting pressure.
And pressure, as Marcus Smart reminded us before the series, “bursts pipes.”
Right now, the Rockets look like a pipe ready to explode.
The evidence is on the tape, not just in the box score. There’s video of Durant screaming, “Pass the rock!” at rookie Reed Sheppard after a forced shot at the end of the second quarter.
There’s another of Tari Eason and Alperen Sengun going at each other on the bench after an offensive goaltending.
You can survive missed shots. You can’t survive mistrust.
Houston head coach Ime Udoka tried to keep it simple after the loss: poor shooting, turnovers, and missed opportunities. All correctable in his opinion.
But that explanation doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
The Rockets are winning the battles that matter when it comes to winning and losing.
They’ve out-rebounded the Lakers 86-72 through two games. They’ve had more second-chance points. More fastbreak points. More points in the paint. More overall possessions.
On paper, they should be dominating this series.
Instead, they’re chasing it.
Because the Lakers — playing without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves — are doing the one thing Houston can’t right now: they trust each other.
That trust and team chemistry forged through a 16-2 month of March is showing up in the margins in the postseason in April.
They’re connected. They’re communicating without talking. They’re making the right reads and finding the open man.
They’re defensive identity looks elite compared to the Rockets which are the sixth-best defensive team in the NBA.
“We had to learn to play without each other early in the season and I think that helped us in the long run,” said Smart of why the Lakers’ trust and chemistry is revealing itself in the playoffs despite not having their two top scorers. “We put in the work (on our chemistry) every day. We have to step our games up for those guys.”
The Lakers are shooting nearly 50% from three across the first two games. The Rockets? A cold 28%. Right now they lack confidence and are making mistakes that a young team that played in a Game 7 in the playoffs last year shouldn’t make.
Now the series shifts to Houston for Game 3, and the stakes aren’t just about avoiding a 3-0 hole. It’s about survival and whether or not the Rockets can hold itself together long enough to claw back into this series.
Because if Tuesday night was any indication, the collapse isn’t coming soon.
It’s already here.
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