{"id":95647,"date":"2025-12-20T22:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/95647\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T22:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T22:20:06","slug":"kevin-durant-struggling-to-get-ball-in-clutch-time-for-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/95647\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant struggling to get ball in clutch time for Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dec. 20, 2025, 4:01 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">When the Rockets traded for Kevin Durant, it was to address a clear area of need.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Despite earning the two seed in last year&#8217;s playoffs, Houston was upset in the first round by the Golden State Warriors in seven games. With three of the games decided by 10 points or less, the Rockets&#8217; young core couldn&#8217;t find consistent offense down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Jalen Green, Houston&#8217;s leading scorer in 2024-25, struggled in his first taste of the postseason. Green scored less than 10 points in four of the games, mustering just 8 points in Game 7 while shooting 37.2% from the floor for the series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Enter Kevin Durant. The Rockets traded Green for him this offseason with the idea that he would provide them an established closer, significantly raising their ceiling as a contender.<\/p>\n<p>The early returns from Houston&#8217;s clutch-time offense with Durant<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While there&#8217;s still time for the Rockets to figure it out, the early returns from Houston&#8217;s clutch-time offense with Durant leave a lot to be desired. The 37-year-old&#8217;s usage rate in the clutch is fourth among the Rockets&#8217; rotation players at just 16.9.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:7|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Sengun leads Houston with a 31.7% usage rate, followed by Aaron Holiday at 25% and Amen Thompson at 17.5%. Considering Sengun&#8217;s strong performance at Eurobasket this summer, it&#8217;s not surprising to see him get involved more offensively for the Rockets. Thompson has also shouldered more offensive responsibilities this season, but there&#8217;s no justification for Durant to be behind Holiday or have such a low usage rate in general.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Houston&#8217;s opponents this season have double-teamed Durant in an effort to force the ball out of his hands, especially down the stretch, but the Rockets have offered little resistance to those defensive schemes. As a result, Houston&#8217;s clutch-time offense has suffered, and the proof lies in their record in close games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Seven of Houston&#8217;s eight losses this season have been in the clutch, and if the Rockets hope to make a deep playoff run, they have to be able to compete in close games. Regardless of whether it&#8217;s the fault of the players or head coach Ime Udoka, one way to improve in that area is by integrating Durant more into its clutch-time offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 20, 2025, 4:01 p.m. CT When the Rockets traded for Kevin Durant, it was to address a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9261,9262,31034,12162,12163,6326,9264,15751,21052,217,46,36],"class_list":["post-95647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsnbarockets","tag-sstsnrockets","tag-tagaaron-holiday","tag-tagalperen-sengun","tag-tagamen-thompson","tag-tagbasketball","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagime-udoka","tag-tagjalen-green","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}