Originally, I figured that the most 2026 Houston Rockets thing that could happen is what happened in Game 3: take a sizable lead into the final moments and blow the game, culminating in an overtime loss. The poor play in clutch situations has defined this team, and their 20+ blown fourth quarter leads this year is the evidence.<\/p>\n
The Rockets have been the arbiters of hope this season, constantly getting leads and then promptly blowing them in the most heartbreaking fashions imaginable. And it just kept happening. You figure that at some point they would learn from their mistakes, or that the sheer amount of experience would be a boon. \u201cHey, we\u2019ve all been in this situation before and we\u2019ve all been the reason we lost one of these games. So let\u2019s just do our best and trust each other.\u201d Something, anything that takes terrible experiences and uses them as fuel for the next time a similar event occurs.<\/p>\n
And in sports, that\u2019s usually what happens. Teams struggle to get over the hump but get better and more hardened and eventually either blow up or successfully summit the mountain. That\u2019s the blueprint we\u2019ve seen time and time again.<\/p>\n
But no team has toyed with its fans\u2019 emotions more than the Houston Rockets. Now 1-8 in overtime, the Rockets have blown just about every sort of game that is possible. 20-point fourth quarter lead? Yep. 99.9% chance of winning based on your favorite site\u2019s analytics? They\u2019ve blown that too. Up double digits in overtime? They lost. Up 6 with 30 seconds left at home in the biggest game of the season? They almost lost in regulation!<\/p>\n
Every time we\u2019ve been ready to give up on the Rockets, they show us their talent and put together a few games where you think, \u201cOh maybe they figured it out!\u201d But then they promptly remind everyone that they have not, in fact, figured it out.<\/p>\n
So I can\u2019t decide which way to lose this series would be the most 2026 Rockets. I\u2019m hoping for the sweet release of death when it comes to this season, so we know that won\u2019t happen easily. Either the Rockets will once again blow a big lead just for old time\u2019s sake, OR they will fight back in this series and win the next three games. They will look really good and give Rockets fans hope that they\u2019ll become the first NBA team to ever overcome a 3-0 deficit. They\u2019ll be up 20 in the fourth quarter of Game 7. Staples Center will be dead silent. Luka Doncic will be on the bench. Austin Reaves will not be 100%. LeBron James will look old and defeated by Father Time.<\/p>\n
And then Luke Kennard will hit a 3. Then Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura will hit a couple. Jaxson Hayes will throw down a dunk and the lead will be single digits and the building will be rocking. LeBron will return, having gotten plenty of rest after JJ Reddick had originally thrown in the towel. And Houston will lose in overtime.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that sounds like these Rockets.<\/p>\n
Kevin Durant: questionable<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves: questionable<\/p>\n
The Line (as of this post)<\/p>\n
Looking ahead because we can<\/p>\n
If necessary, Game 5 on Wednesday in Los Angeles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Originally, I figured that the most 2026 Houston Rockets thing that could happen is what happened in Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,45652],"class_list":{"0":"post-286521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-rockets-game-previews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}