Kevin Durant shook the NBA world when he joined forces with Stephen Curry and Co. in 2016. The league had no answer for the lethal offensive combination of KD, Steph, and Klay. They wreaked havoc on their opponents and won back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. But there was one team that came awfully close to ending their dominant run during the 2018 playoffs. The James Harden-led Houston Rockets took the Warriors to a thrilling 7-game series in the Western Conference Finals but choked in the biggest moment.

An Ex-Rockets veteran confessed helplessness vs KD in that series and how the Rockets targeted The Splash Brothers to gain the upper hand.

Former Houston Rockets veteran addresses heartbreaking loss in 2018 WCF

Ex-Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon was a guest on the Old Man & The Three podcast hosted by JJ Redick. He talked about the Rockets’ strategy during the 2018 Western Conference Finals against the Warriors. “Let KD score as many points as he can because he is gonna be hard to stop anyway. But we feel like we could be super physical with everybody else,” Gordon said. The Rockets knew they had no answer for The Slim Reaper. So, they let him go one-on-one while they put pressure on Steph and Klay.

Houston’s strategy worked to an extent as they took a commanding 3-2 lead in the series. They shut down The Splash Brothers on offense. Steph was limited to under 25 points three times in that series, and Klay averaged only 19.4 points in 7 games. Unfortunately for the Rockets, Kevin Durant’s offense proved too much for them to handle. KD averaged 30.4 points in that series, scoring a total of 75 points in Games 6 and 7.

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The Houston Rockets choked under pressure

Another reason for Houston’s loss to the Warriors was their shooting struggle in Game 7. James Harden and Co. had the chance to close the series twice, but they could not. Houston embarrassed themselves in Game 7 after they missed 27 straight three-pointers. Mike D’Antoni’s coaching style relied too much on shooting, and it came back to bite the Rockets. They were doing well until Game 5 and were even on the verge of dethroning the Warriors.

Unfortunately, their superstar point guard, Chris Paul, got injured in the closing minutes of Game 5. Even though the Rockets won that game and took a 3-2 series lead, they could not recover from the departure of CP3 in Games 6 and 7. Although 5 years have passed since the Rockets got eliminated by the Warriors, the memories continue to haunt the Rockets players as they were 1 win away from ending the Warriors’ dynasty.

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