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Rockets star Kevin Durant frequently found himself double teamed in Game 2 of the series.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant lamented that the Los Angeles Lakers sent double teams his way from the first possession of Game 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t wrong. On his first offensive touch 65 seconds into the first quarter, the Lakers made sure Luke Kennard and Deandre Ayton defended Durant.<\/p>\n It was like that for much of the game. The Lakers either wanted Durant to take a shot with two defenders on him or force the ball out of his hands with a pass.<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel confident in that scheme,\u201d Durant said.<\/p>\n Though Durant scored 20 points in the first half, he had just three in the third and fourth quarters as the fourth-seeded Lakers defeated fifth-seeded Houston 101-94 Tuesday for a 2-0 lead in their first-round Western Conference playoff series<\/a>.<\/p>\n Durant took just 12 shots \u2013 nearly six below his season average \u2013 and just five in the second half while committing a season-high nine turnovers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get into our actions,\u201d Durant said. \u201cWe\u2019re used to teams playing pick-and-roll or maybe trapping me or playing in the drop. But they\u2019re switching, and then just running a guy at me at the half(-court line) or at the 3-point line, or wherever I\u2019m at, to double.\u201d<\/p>\n Durant, one of the game\u2019s most gifted scorers and the NBA\u2019s fifth all-time leader in points, is not fond of double teams. He prefers operating one-on-one, where he has an advantage against most defenders. The Lakers, who are missing Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves due to injuries, want to eliminate that advantage as much as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the type of player who can take over a series,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said.<\/p>\n In three meetings this season, the Lakers won twice in Houston, and Durant averaged 20.3 ppg and shot 56.1%.<\/p>\n Durant missed Game 1 with a bruised right knee and was a game-time decision ahead of the second game.<\/p>\n How will Durant handle double teams in Game 3 on Friday (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video<\/a>)? Durant indicated that he planned to take more shots and do a better job passing out of those double teams. Of those nine turnovers, five came when the Lakers had at least two defenders surrounding him. Four turnovers were in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen two, three people are on me and I shoot, we can get an offensive rebound. \u2026 I\u2019ve got to shoot more of those and put my teammates in better position,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI\u2019ve just got to be more aggressive and look to score no matter where the double team is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n It would help Durant\u2019s cause if the Rockets were better offensively. They have scored fewer than 100 points in both games, shooting 39% from the field and 29% on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just not making shots to be honest,\u201d Durant said. \u201cWe\u2019re not shooting the ball well. We\u2019re missing a lot of layups. I just think that\u2019s the difference in the game. They\u2019re making shots.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve played this team before, and they know the way for them to stay in the game is to play this type of defense. We\u2019ve got to make them pay.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Rockets shoot better, that would force the Lakers to make decisions. But until then, expect a steady stream of double teams on Durant.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets star Kevin Durant frequently found himself double teamed in Game 2 of the series. \u2022\u00a0Download the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,304434,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-628031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-lakers-rockets-game-3-playoffs","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628031","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=628031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}