The questions are getting louder in Houston. A team that spent most of the season near the top of the West is suddenly slipping, and the conversation has started to turn toward the one player brought in to stabilize everything.

On Monday night, that tension hit a breaking point. The Houston Rockets fell 100-92 to the Los Angeles Lakers, a loss defined by another late-game collapse and followed by Kevin Durant openly questioning both his own performance and the team’s offensive structure.

That combination is what makes this moment different. Because this is no longer just about one loss. It is about whether the Rockets’ biggest move has quietly become their biggest problem.

Durant finished with 18 points on 8-for-16 shooting with seven turnovers, six of which happened in the second half. Houston collapsed as L.A. doubled on him.

After the game, his remarks only made things worse.

“I just felt like I lost the game for us tonight. It’s that simple,” Durant said. “To be honest, I’m the offense and the opposing team is going to use all their resources and not let me get comfortable… I just feel like it just makes us stagnant… The whole process is too slow. And I just think that it’s all on me, because the team, when they see me, it just feels like one-on-five, to be honest… It’s almost like a zone when I get the ball up top.”

He took responsibility for the defeat, but at the same time wasn’t going to take the full responsibility by blaming the system. 

He is subtly reminding everyone that without him carrying the load, the Rockets are nothing. That defeat means Houston is now only three games away from the Phoenix Suns, who currently occupy the No. 7 seed and in the play-in spot. 

But just this one bad game doesn’t fully explain why Durant has been in the spotlight this season.

The KD Effect Is Bad For Houston 

The Rockets entered this season with a lot of promise. They had a good regular season last year, finishing only behind the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West. However, a disappointing first-round exit to a below-par Golden State Warriors team showed that they weren’t yet ready.  They pushed to change that notion by pulling off a record seven-team trade that landed Durant in Houston.

The 37-year-old was joining a roster that already had Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet and Amen Thompson among the likes. They look solid on paper and, for the majority of the season, managed to hold on to a top-three seed in the West. 

Durant is averaging 25.8 points per game, which is decent but his lowest in 11 years. 

The Rockets have watched as leads have evaporated in the fourth quarter many times this season as their offense has ground to a halt. And now, after that home loss to the surging Lakers, they are shaky, with five losses from their last 10 games. They lost only 30 games last season and with 14 games left, they are just four games behind that tally this season. 

It begs the question whether the Durant addition has improved or downgraded the team.

Of course, putting it all on Durant may seem too harsh because injuries have not done Houston any favors this season. VanVleet hasn’t played this season because of a torn ACL. Steven Adams, the starting center, underwent season-ending ankle surgery back in January. The offense has defaulted to improvisation without these two. 

History has shown that Durant isn’t the kind of vet for these kinds of situations, and he makes his frustration known. He denied reports of a burner social media account in February, an account that took digs at several of his Houston teammates. That may have been swept under the rug, but that pattern of skidding when things are rough and having excuses have followed Durant all through his career.  

With roughly a month to go in the regular season, the Rockets are officially teetering. They are smack-dab in a logjam of teams looking to battle for home-court advantage in the spring tournament. Another lousy stretch and Houston is looking at a devastating free-fall that’ll see it land in the play-in.

The team hasn’t looked right since the Durant burner accounts hit the internet. Perhaps that is still a cloud over this team.