As we anticipated, the undermanned Los Angeles Lakers are showing a lot more fight than most people expected, as they currently hold a 2-0 lead over the Houston Rockets.

Kevin Durant didn’t play in Game 1, but he was there in Game 2, and the Lakers turned him into a pumpkin in the second half. In 22 minutes, Durant scored 3 points on 1-for-5 shooting from the floor while turning the ball over five times.

Head coach JJ Redick and his staff have worked hard to throw (arguably) the weirdest puzzle he’s seen during his illustrious 18-year career. Now, the question becomes: Does the future first ballot Hall of Famer have what it takes to solve it?

The Anyone But You Defense

In Game 2, the Lakers deployed what I am now coining the “Anyone But You” defense. Not to be confused with the 2023 romantic comedy, this tactic involves double-teaming Durant any time he touches the ball and zoning up the middle of the floor with the other three defenders. This ends in a bucket, but based on the Rockets’ 105.6 offensive rating (11.9 points per 100 possessions below their regular-season average), this plan worked to perfection.

The other key wrinkle usually involves bringing the double from the right side of the floor, so if Durant tries to dribble around it, he’ll have to attack with his left (his weak hand). In the clip below, you don’t the unprovoked double team you saw before, but notice the way Jaxson Hayes’ feet are positioned. This isn’t poor defensive technique. He wants to force Durant to drive in that direction.

Then, when he doesn’t have the ball, his defender face guards him so he can’t get open for any easy catch-and-shoot jumpers, forcing the Rockets to beat the Lakers in a game of four-on-four.

What Can Durant Do To Counter This?

The easiest remedy to this problem is to play so fast that the Lakers don’t have time to get their defense set. Durant nailed a couple of jumpers in the first half by doing this.

Of course, you can’t play the whole game in transition. At best, Houston still needs to play three-fourths of the game in the halfcourt. One way Durant can navigate these moments is by giving the ball up after getting doubled and then immediately getting it back and attacking from there. Kind of like how a big man posts up, kicks it back up, and then sets up a re-post.

Doing this tilts the defense because once Durant gets off the ball the first time, the doubling defender starts backtracking to recover and re-balance the floor – creating an automatic advantage for The Slim Reaper to exploit.

Durant can also start actions off-ball so that he can build up momentum before receiving it. The trick here is to design the play so that Durant catches the ball and is able to drive middle (to avoid being ICE-ed) going to his right (because Durant is far more comfortable going in that direction.

Since the Lakers are so focused on sticking to Durant whenever he is off the ball, he can also operate as a decoy. His teammates can screen for him then use the pocket of space created by the automatic switch (the Lakers have been switching most screening actions) to slip to the basket.

Or, since the Lakers won’t even help off Durant when he’s on the weakside, he can just camp out in a corner and let the Rockets play four-on-four. I know Houston struggled to even take advantage of the 4-on-3 situations he was creating for them, but they also experienced an abnormally bad shooting night (24.1% from three). Plus, imagine how difficult it would be for the Lakers to consistently keep the Rockets from creating second chances (the best offensive rebounding team in the league) with one less defender fighting for positioning.

How do The Rockets help Durant?

This defence would not be possible without Durant’s weak supporting cast. They lack the shooting ability to punish teams for leaving people open on the perimeter (28th in 3-point rate), the ball handling to penalise reckless closeouts (24th in turnover rate), and the quick decision-making required to ping pong the ball around to the open man. Heck, there were times when Durant was doubled at the top, and there was no one in the middle to act as a release valve – a simple concept even at the high school level.

The bottom line is this defense shouldn’t work against a competent NBA offense. Just look how easily the Lakers dissected it when the Rockets tried this strategy on LeBron James:

First off, head coach Ime Udoka needs to make sure the Rockets are prioritizing lineups with as much shooting and ball handling as possible. Reed Sheppard (the Rockets’ best volume shooter) should not be playing just ten minutes. Dorian Finney-Smith (a career 35.9% 3-point shooter) should not be out of the rotation. I don’t care about their defensive shortcomings. The Lakers are without their two best offensive players (Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves). There will always be a weak link for them to hide on.

The Rockets also need to be very intentional about about who they are putting in the middle of the floor. Amen Thompson is a great connective tissue passer who is adept at reading the defense and making the correct decision.

Speaking of Thompson, it may be worth giving him the keys to the offense more frequently. In their last regular season meeting (when Durant was relegated to 11 field goal attempts), Thompson scored 26 points on 62.6% true shooting. Early on in Game 2, Houston manufactured some good offense by having Luke Kennard’s man set a drag screen for Thompson to get the young phenom a weak matchup going downhill.

Alperen Sengun, the only other healthy player with an All-Star pedigree on the roster, also needs to be far better than he has been. Through two games, he is averaging just 19.5 PPG on 44% TS. If you are really one of the league’s best bigs, you simply cannot be getting locked up by someone who was bought out by their previous team (no offense, Deandre Ayton, you have been playing awesome in this series).

Will Durant And The Rockets Figure This Out?

It doesn’t take an expert to know that this Rockets’ team is spiraling. The dynamic hasn’t been the same since the latest Durant burner scandal; his teammates seem to be throwing jabs at him to media, and analysts are questioning Udoka’s coaching acumen.

From an on-court perspective, Durant’s weak handle and proclivity toward scoring before playmaking make him a less-than-ideal number one offensive option; the Rockets lack the personnel to make his life any easier, and without Steven Adams, they aren’t enough of an outlier on the offensive glass to make up for these shortcomings. We haven’t even talked about the possibility of Redick going to a 2-3 zone, which has given Houston problems in the past (see their first clash with the Miami Heat this season), if the Rockets start to dissect this coverage.

To be frank, I doubt the Rockets climb out of this 0-2 jam, but if they are going to, the pathway we outlined above is their best chance of doing it.