{"id":612314,"date":"2026-04-17T05:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612314\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:59:08","slug":"lebron-james-everyone-on-the-rockets-is-a-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612314\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James: Everyone on the Rockets ‘is a threat’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The upcoming NBA playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and Houston Rockets<\/a> is being billed as a clash between LeBron James<\/a> and Kevin Durant<\/a>, two of the league’s greatest players over the last 10 to 15 years. But the Rockets are a talented team that people had high hopes for when this season started, and they have several other men who are threats.<\/p>\n

They have center Alperen Sengun<\/a>, who made the All-Star team for the second time this year. Forward Amen Thompson<\/a> is blossoming into a near-star and is very athletic, and Houston’s roster is stocked with other role players and complementary players who can hurt the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

That was the message LeBron James sent on Thursday when he talked to reporters, per Benjamin Royer<\/a> of the Orange County Register.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the last time we was in Houston I told you all how great he\u2019s been since he picked up a basketball,\u201d James said of Durant. \u201cSo that\u2019s one part of it, obviously we know that\u2019s the head of the snake. But it\u2019s the Houston Rockets and they have some damn good players on their team. It\u2019s not just a KD team. It\u2019s the whole group. Like I said, KD is gonna do what KD does, he\u2019s a Hall of Famer, we know that. So we have to prepare not only for him, but for the whole group.<\/p>\n

\u201c… They possess some really damn good players on the floor, and we have to be ready for all of that. From KD, to Sengun, to the Thompson twin, Jabari Smith<\/a>, [Tari] Eason<\/a>, [Reed] Sheppard. Everyone who goes on the floor is a threat and we have to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Rockets were next-to-last in pace and 18th in scoring during the regular season, they were eighth in offensive rating. They had six players average double figures in scoring, and while they don’t have anything close to a true point guard available to play (Fred VanVleet<\/a> has been out all season with a torn ACL), they have lots of length and size up and down their roster.<\/p>\n

In particular, Thompson is someone who could turn out to be a thorn in L.A.’s side. The 6-foot-7 wing has often been masquerading as a point guard, and he averaged 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game during the regular season. Of course, Thompson is also regarded as a stellar defender, and he was named to the All-Defensive first team last year.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: LeBron James: Everyone on the Rockets ‘is a threat’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The upcoming NBA playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets is being billed as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[23895,42158,64,63,726,297386,19703,7220,196980,7216,7896,7232,85,297385],"class_list":{"0":"post-612314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-eason","14":"tag-fred-vanvleet","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-jabari-smith","17":"tag-kevin-durant","18":"tag-lebron-james","19":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-talented-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}