Kevin Durant has officially been ruled out for the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 6 contest against the Houston Rockets. On the surface, while that may seem like a good thing, there are some arguments for and against Durant making the Rockets a better team. It’s not lost on anyone that Durant wasn’t present for either of the Rockets’ two wins so far this series.
In Game 2, Durant played in his one and only game of the series, and he was a complete disaster. Durant couldn’t hold onto the ball; he wilted against double-teams, and his scoring was completely limited. The Lakers shut him down.
But without him, do the Rockets actually stand a better chance?
Would Lakers be better of if Kevin Durant wasn't out for Game 6?
LA’s last two games have been very different. They got completely blown out by the Rockets in Game 4, but in Game 5, the Rockets eeked out a narrow victory over the returning Autin Reaves and his Lakers squad.
The Lakers almost made a miraculous comeback, but they ended up falling just short, largely thanks to a monster performance from Jabari Smith Jr., who scored a team-high 22 points, highlighted by 4-of-9 shooting from behind the three-point arc.
Without Durant on the court, the ball seemed to move a lot better. The Lakers weren’t throwing around as many crazy double-teams, allowing their defense to be a bit more set, but the Rockets actually made the most of that.
They drove and found Alperen Sengun in the paint, drawing more help than straight-up double-teams super high up the court -- the type of coverage that JJ Redick threw at Durant.
As a result, the Rockets had a lot more success from downtown than they usually do, and that was part of the reason the Lakers couldn’t get the job done.
Not only that, but without Durant on the court, the Rockets did a much better job of taking care of the basketball, even against the Lakers’ defensive pressure.
In Houston’s Game 4 win, the Lakers only forced 13 turnovers. In Game 5, they only forced 10. Even looking at the other two games Durant didn’t play in, the Lakers forced 12 turnovers in Game 1 and 15 in Game 3.
Obviously, Game 3 was the biggest outlier of the bunch, but in Durant’s one and only game, he turned the ball over nine times by himself against the Lakers’ defense. They had 15 turnovers as a team in that one.
Based on what has happened so far, it may be almost beneficial for Durant to be active. But he’s not.
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