2026 Playoffs: (4) Lakers Vs (5) Rockets - Discussion

That wasn't just a series winning game, that might of blown up this iteration of the rockets. I fully expect them to rebuild in the offseason, this has been a foundation shaking series. Thanks Ime - hope you get fired.

 

I said my above comment before reading this, yep, this is a burn it down situation now.

 

Norman Dale would had loved thst passing exchange with 2 minutes left in OT. Beautiful basketball. 4 passes!

 

They still have a good young core, they just don't have a leader. Trading a bunch of assets for almost 38 year old KD was just dumb. The dude has never been a leader and his career outside of GS (who were already a historically great team before he joined) has amounted to nothing because every time all he does is get his 30 and poison the locker room. They don't call him snake for nothing.

 

I maybe in the minority, but Thomspon and Sengun are very good young players but Houston not replacing FVF and drafting Sheppard over Castle is real ouch. You put Castle on this Rockets team and they maybe up 2-1 lol

 

Mistake Rockets made is trying to compete now.

They should have kept Brooks and Green. Let these dudes develop for another couple of years and then trade for a missing piece. KD is a great player but Brooks was their defensive leader. Not a fan of Jalen Green but he has his moments. Still a young player and fit their timeline.

By trading for KD, they rushed the timeline... Sengun, Thompson, Eason, and Reed don't have much playoffs experience. They're 2-3 years away from being legit contenders.

I like Reed, honestly. I think he'll be an All-Star in the future. But the lights against the Lakers are too bright for him right now.

If I'm the Lakers, I play Reaves for game 4. Get him some run time for the OKC series. I think Rockets might shut it down with KD and look to trade him in the offseason. It's obvious it won't work out. Younger dudes have no respect for KD and KD doesn't care enough to change. I could see the Knicks trading OG for KD. Helps both teams.

Does anyone know how many days of rest OKC/LAL will have if they both sweep their respective teams? Do they automatically play each other with 2-3 days rest or is it like a week?

 

what an incredible win

 

I went out cuz of a massive headache with like a 13-15pts Lakers lead. Woke up, saw an OT... didn't have balls to go thru it, went back to sleep.
What a freakin win (nice choke by both teams too btw). No matter what happens from now on, gotta be proud of this team, players and coaches.
That being said, the job is not finished... i still remember that 2006 playoffs against the Suns

 

"They should have kept Brooks and Green."

 

The revenge game

 

Told yall we wasn't going to miss him.

 

i would be very surprised if sheppard ends up an allstar. he's young, but age is always a proxy variable. the value in drafting sheppard was that he was pretty polished, both skill-wise and physically. when people say someone's young and thus has a lot of growth potential, you usually mean three things: physically, skill-wise, and then experience.

everyone was down on knecht bc he was old at draft time, but what they meant was that he was already physically mature (same as sheppard) and had a pretty well-developed skill set (again, same as sheppard). sheppard will get better with experience, but i don't think he'll be a star-level player. his athleticism really hasn't translated at the next level.

he'll likely be a good starting guard for a decade, but that time is not now.


as for whether houston should have held onto green and brooks? i'm on team get rid of them. i don't love either as a player, and the positive dillon brooks effect usually lasts like 1.5 seasons before everybody's tired of him.

was durant the ideal target? no. but he was the available one, and i consider green and brooks to be a low cost.

where houston screwed up was not doing anything to mitigate the loss of fvv.

i also found their offseason super puzzling, adding capela and DFS as high-dollar third stringers at positions of strength.

 

I understand Capela in theory because Adams always gets hurt. There's a thread of logic to follow there, but that same logic was completely abandoned with FVV's injury.

 

They should have added Harden instead of Durant or better yet just went for Giannis.

 

Was going to be a bad loss after how the 1st half went but ended up as a miracle win/Rockets choke job .. who knows maybe the Lakers luck is back ?

 

I agree 100%. Castle is better than anyone the Rockets currently have, other than Amen.