With its offensive engine hindered by a flurry of double-teams, Houston scored just 12 points on 4-for-16 shooting while committing nine costly turnovers in the final period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Houston](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/lebron-james-23-los-angeles-123813477.jpg\")
Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant blamed himself for Monday\u2019s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt like I lost the game for us tonight,\u201d said Durant, who scored just two of his 18 points in the second half and accounted for seven of Houston\u2019s 24 turnovers. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple. Of course we probably could make more 3s, but it\u2019s on me. I mean, to be honest, I\u2019m the offense and the opposing team is going to use all their resources and not let me get comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst half, I got comfortable in iso, comfortable coming off of pindowns, pick-and-rolls and they decided not to let me get comfortable no more,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I got to be smarter, better with the ball. I got to maybe shoot over some of them double-teams, but space out, be ready to catch and shoot, be ready to be a screener, just be in a dunker spot, just being able to be there as a resource for my teammates to provide space. I didn\u2019t need to have the ball as much as I did tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockets (41\u201326) have frequently struggled late in games when teams send reinforcements at Durant, but were further strained Monday night as All-Star center Alperen Sengun was sidelined to nurse lower back pain.<\/p>\n
The Lakers (43\u201325) \u2014 who have won nine of their last 10 games behind an emerging defensive identity \u2014 planned accordingly, deploying several different coverages to disrupt Houston\u2019s sole source of offense.<\/p>\n
It proved a winning strategy for Los Angeles, which offset its own offensive struggles \u2014 save for Luka Doncic\u2019s 36 points \u2014 by holding Houston to just 35 points and 15 forced turnovers, including six from Durant, after intermission.<\/p>\n
![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-123806904.jpg\")
Kevin Durant was hit with several double-teams during the second half of Monday\u2019s loss to the Lakers. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201c[Durant\u2019s] one of the greatest players we\u2019ve ever seen play obviously, so you\u2019ve just got to try to show him different looks, try to keep him off balance,\u201d said LeBron James, who scored 18 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when he shoots, hope he misses. He don\u2019t miss many shots. So I thought we did a good job of having a game plan, but also just switching up our pitches. Can\u2019t show a great like that too many of the same coverages just throughout the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockets \u2014 now 1 1\/2 games behind Los Angeles for third place in the Western Conference \u2014 will host the Lakers again Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Durant, who finished 8-for-16 from the floor but shot just 1-for-5 during the second half, would seemingly like to see Houston implement a different strategy in the rematch \u2014 questioning his effectiveness as the primary ball handler down the stretch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel like it just makes us stagnant,\u201d Durant said. \u201cWhen I come across half [court] and then they waited on me to drive, but I know they\u2019re coming to double, so I wait a split second. I just think the whole process is too slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I just think that it\u2019s all on me, because the team, when they see me, it just feels like one-on-five, to be honest,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know what I\u2019m saying? Because I see two guys coming up out the corner to help at the elbows and guys at the boxes. It\u2019s almost like a zone when I get the ball up top. When I try to post up anywhere, it\u2019s going to be double-teams. So I\u2019m just trying to find out ways to open myself up, open my teammates up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant was his own harshest critic Monday night. The Rockets star was brutally honest with reporters after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,938,185,150,6,211,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-663195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-lebron-james","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-rockets","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116245448643544195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}