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The Houston Rockets got punched in the mouth when they went up against the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic got an easy triple-double against them which led to an unfortunate 129-93 blowout. A lot of things went wrong for Coach Ime Udoka's squad. No one managed to score 20 points and one person suffered the most due to that — Kevin Durant.
Rockets veteran plans to sacrifice more
Coach Udoka played Durant for 26 minutes and usually this would mean that he would be torching opposing defenses. This was not at all the case when the Nuggets assigned Christian Braun to defend him. The Rockets veteran scoring machine did not sink a single one of his two three-point attempts and he only managed to knock down five of his eight field goal attempts for 11 points.
It was clear that the Jokic-led Nuggets hounded Durant. He also committed three turnovers which completely blocked the Rockets from gaining any sort of offensive momentum. On nights like these, Durant outlined that he should be sacrificing more to create opportunities for the rest of their roster. He unveiled this plan after the loss, via BasketNews.
"It's not frustrating at all. I just feel like I should sacrifice myself even more. If they're gonna triple-team me, I should get it out, be able to make plays. I should grab more rebounds so I can push. Because, I'm grabbing a rebound and I see two dudes running at me at half court and I feel like I made a play and we got something good on the back end," the Rockets veteran declared.
Glimpses of this plan were seen by Rockets fans. Amid the high-pressure defense, Durant managed to dish out five assists. This has also been a running theme throughout Coach Udoka and Co.'s campaign so far. He is currently averaging 4.5 assists per game. If this trend continues, he gets to empower young guns like Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, and Reed Sheppard to score more.
Moreover, Durant has proven that he is more than capable of facilitating when other scorers are around. His career-high in assists was back when he played alongside James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and LaMarcus Aldridge on the Brooklyn Nets.
"They were trapping, double-teaming, trying to get the ball out of my hands. We were getting layups. I feel like our offense was clicking outside of making wide-open shots. Like I said, we generated good looks. It's a make-or-miss league. I have got to be more aggressive to just go get the ball, knowing that teams are gonna put two and sometimes three people on me, and I can get my teammates better looks instead of having to work too hard for stuff. So I think that I have got to be more aggressive to just go get the ball," Durant added.
This loss to Jokic and the Nuggets definitely serves as a focal point in the Rockets' season. Will he be able to effectively shift his game to a point where they can recover from this two-game skid to the postseason?
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