This season was an interesting one for the Rockets. Pegged as a top-tier title contender after swapping Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green for Kevin Durant, things went off the rails before the season even started when Fred VanVleet tore his ACL in September. The lack of a true point guard was immediately obvious as Houston struggled to score at a high level—but won lots of games anyway by bludgeoning opponents defensively and on the boards. Then Steven Adams, a key part of both aspects, suffered a season-ending injury of his own in January.
That turned the Rockets into the team we saw during these playoffs: a talented but imbalanced team overly reliant on a 37-year-old Durant to score points. And when he went down in the first round, Houston couldn’t compensate. The result? A five-game series loss to the Lakers.
