“Must win” is overused in sports…except in actual must-win games. The Rockets fell into a massive hole against the Lakers, one from which no team has ever emerged in NBA history, but success in Game 4 has provided a glimmer of hope that they can, at the very least, retain some dignity heading into the offseason.
Now, another must-win game Wednesday night, this time in LA, looms.
After an inspiring speech by Alperen Sengun at shootaround before Game 4, the Rockets we saw for much of the 2024-25 season — the scrapping, hustling, fighting, undermanned one — made an appearance and it was a welcome sight.
The “Terror Twins” of Amen Thompson and Tari Eason emerged from whatever cave they were in for much of this regular season and created chaos all over the floor. They frustrated Laker shooters who had dominated games one, two and three, and forced 23 turnovers.
The turnovers and missed shots led to runouts and fast break opportunities we have rarely seen from this team in recent months.
The Rockets, of course, had to play this way to stay alive. They didn’t have Kevin Durant, so the only option was to revert back to what they were before him, before Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green were shipped off to Phoenix. The team that won as many games the season before Durant arrived as the one that did this year with him.
The truth is Durant has masked a number of cracks in this team. When you have someone as offensively excellent as KD, it’s easy to marvel and let him do the bulk of the work. When you have Fred VanVleet to be the on-the-court general, other players can relax and just play their roles. When Steven Adams is cleaning the offensive glass like his life depends on it, you don’t have to make as many shots as you do without him.
Without those three players, the Rockets have seemed lost in the series. They miss shots, turn the ball over, and don’t seem to be able to stop anyone. Until game four.
That is when the one part of this team was still on the floor, the defensive minded, scrappers who drive opponents crazy and refuse to back down. With Durant likely to miss game five, that is the team that must take the floor again, and it is a winning formula.
Granted, Reed Sheppard has to hit shots. Sengun must be active in the paint. Thompson has to have another monster night. And the role players have to play their roles with reckless abandon. But, it is absolutely possible to replicate it in game five. And, if they are able to do that, Durant could be back and the pressure to win for the Lakers will start to mount.
The odds of the Rockets coming back in this series and winning it are near zero. But, maybe they can get back some of that swagger they lost and find their identity, maybe for the first time all year. Better to enter the offseason that way than the alternative.
