ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Lakers 4/18/2026 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

Both, they should not have been extended prematurely, that was on the owner and his son.

I think for the big names like Westbrook or KD, the owner has to be on board for certain.

Role players or calibers like Dillon, Brook Lopez, FVV, only Ime Udoka.

Stone had more say when Silas was around......

 

Stone has gotten elite shooters on this team:
Kevin Durant
Reed Sheppard
Aaron Holiday

Average shooters:
FVV
Jabari Smith
Tari Eason
DFS (prior historical slump)

thats around half the 15 man roster. Compared to Lakers who are the shooters? Luke Kennard and Lebron. Udoka just doesnt know how to use his roster.

 

Yep, he is Luis Scola level a good player, an occasional all star, but not a great one....

DD

 

It is Stone - Udoka and also some lack of player development.

Stone drafted these guys that don’t fit well together. However, he also likely felt Jabari and Jalen would be solid three point shooters based on their scouting reports.

Udoka pushed defense and limiting turnovers. Well most of those types of players aren’t also good shooters or they are max contract guys.

There is no shortage of blame and some just mixed luck too.

I personally have long faulted Stone for lacking vision when it came to building a roster. He early on drafted players with flaws that made them very difficult to build around and he lacked an organizational vision as to how they would play.

Udoka brought a vision on how they would play, but he is inflexible and couldn’t adapt to the talent on the roster. So he brought in guys that fit his vision but lacked talent.

The third part is luck. The Rockets didn’t get a Wemby or even Chet or Flagg. However it wasn’t all bad luck as they were lucky to keep the Jalen pick and got lucky on the Sheppard pick.

We are in part seeing the outcome of what happens when middling luck meets competent but not high level management and flawed coaching.

 

Everyone ISOs. KD ISOs. Sengun ISOs. Amen ISOs. Holiday ISOs. Jabari ISOs. Reed ISOs. That's our offense. There are very rarely plays being run. It's like a pickup game at the YMCA.

 

Fittingly, this series is reminding me of the first round series with the Lakers back in 99 (the Pippen year). Just inexplicably unorganized, lazy, and uninspired. There was no fire in that team - I remember Barkley slamming a chair repeatedly during a time out to get everybody to wake up.

I see Udoka calling the ref a b****, nobody thinks you're tough dude, Luke effing Kennard is lighting you up and you ain't doing s*** about it.

Stone...that same Kennard was available to you as well, it's an example of how you don't sit on your ass when your starting PG and C go down. Doing nothing is rarely the answer, take a chance with some waiver pickups, you never know.

Remember Eddie Johnson? Hit a playoff game winner the same year we picked him up off his couch...we didn't even have a uniform for him his first game, it was jersey with no name on the back.

 

I still can't believe Van Vleet got 40 million a year. We just throw money away.

 

BTW - just going to put this here, you can't play ONE creator - you need two that can create with the ball and finish.

We need someone else that can dribble and create for Reed and others.

DD

 

Right i was just thinking how teams like the Thunder and Spurs could be without Shai or JWill even Spurs without Fox but still be competitive and disciplined in games.

 

we are getting absolutely destroyed today by the media, talking heads, and game film nerds after that abysmal game 1 performance

this is one of those days where you put your hoodie on, keep your head down, and hope nobody notices you’re a Rockets fan

 

yea that was ridiculous

 

Cold weather today, hoodie is on.

I saw a guy decked out in lakers gear at the park today.

 

Stone also didn't even want Jabari... stone always wanted Banchero, remember when we got the #3 pick and Stone couldn't hide how excited he was that he was going to be able to draft Banchero because at the time he was the general consensus for #3 pick of the 2023 and in stone's mind he was the only franchise player of that draft which in turn made the magic FO draft pablo over Jabari because of how obvious stone was.

 

Good Lord that's a lot of typing.

Maybe if Alperen Sengun didn't you know - totally suck **** against the one of the worst front line in the entire playoffs - you wouldn't have to do all of that.

Suffice it to say, Charles Barkley is provably wrong - with his comments

This is literally not what happened last night. Do you really believe that of what happened? I mean it's implausible on its face that the Rockets coaching staff & players would say this or do this, and there is no evidence in the game film of it happening.

Do you have any evidence that this is true? Let me go to nba.com and see if you & Sir Charles are right or if I am right.

Remember, the claim is the ROckets don't run plays and just go one on one and jack up every shot.

First play, steal/runout layup for Okogie.

Second play, High screen by SMith for Thompson, Jabari floats out, Thompson gets the swtich of Kennard, Amen cooks him and gets a layup.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CF...6&flag=1&title=Thompson Driving Layup (2 PTS)

That is a designed play to get the mismatch - you & Charles are 0/1

Third play, simimlar play as before, but Lakers don't switch LeBron onto THompson, Thompson beats him to the rim anyway, misses a short floater/layup. I guess this counts as going "one on one" - that's one play.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CF...e=MISS Thompson 5' Driving Floating Jump Shot

Fourht play - Your boy reed Sheppard runs up and takes an early stepback 3 - this is exactly what Barkley was talking about - Great Job Reed. Jabari gets the rebound, knocked out of bounds, Rockets have 7 seconds on teh shot clock & settle for a contested smith 3, miss.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CF...tle=MISS Sheppard 26' 3PT Step Back Jump Shot

Fifth Play - Rocket run a complicated 3 man sequence with Thompson passing to Sengun up high, Thompson dives, AND Smith comes around the back for a possible DHO. Thompson fakes his dive & comes back, then tries to get it in to Sengun in the post but the Lakers are in a zone, Thompson/Reed realize this,, make the right decision to move the ball quickly with some touch pasess to beat the zone & get Smith a drive but Sengun forgets about the 3 second rule. Oops.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...le=Sengun 3 Second Violation Turnover (P1.T1)

6th Play, Sengun calls for the ball up high, Reed fakes like he's going right but hten floats back left & Thompson dives. Sengun tries to back Ayton down but misses the hook.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...g=1&title=MISS Sengun 9' Turnaround Hook Shot

7th play, Thompson beats his man off the dribble with 19 on the clock, open corner 3 for Jabari.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...r. 24' 3PT Jump Shot (3 PTS) (Thompson 1 AST)


8th play - Thompson grabs the ball in transition after a made basket but misses the layup. Probalby should have been a foul on Smart who hacks him on the way up. I mean, I guess you can say this is "going 1 on 1" and jacking it up - but it's exactly the kind of play you would want to see if you're a Rockets fan - a fast paced transitiion after a made basket where Amen runs past all of the Lakers? That is good coaching, that is smart basketball, that is not bad play calling. It is exactly how the Rockets murdered the Lakers on Christmas day.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...6&flag=1&title=MISS Thompson 3' Driving Layup

9th Play, Sengun gets the ball in semi transtion, drives at Ayton, kicks it out to an Open Reed who comes off a Thompson screen, gets it back to Sengun, then another DHO scren by Sengun, Reed back to Sengun, who then decides, **** it, takes a terrible 1 legged jumper and - makes it?

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...&title=Sengun 13' Turnaround Fadeaway (2 PTS)

10th play, Sengun & Sheppard work the switch to get Ayton on to Reed, who fakes a drive, then Reed back out, goes right to Okogie for an oepn 3 - drains it.

https://www.nba.com/stats/events/?C...ogie 27' 3PT Jump Shot (5 PTS) (Sengun 1 AST)

11th play, Thompson hits a running Sengun in semi-transition who works right underneath to get an under the basket lay in

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CF...gun 1' Driving Layup (4 PTS) (Thompson 2 AST)

OK so I dont' need to do this anymore. I have seen enough. The data is all there. Enjoy i

At least 1, arguably 2 of the Rockets first 11 possessions consisted of "whoever gets it shoots it" or "Just play one-on-one"- and that's generously including possessions where Thompson tries to take advantage of the Lakers slowness and get to the hoop. The rest of it was not this. SIr Charles is incorrect, you are incorrect.

All the data is here, you juat have arrived at a conclusion already.

It's fine, you're entitled to your traditional pre-analytics era sir charles AM Radio call-in show take - "They don't play the right way!" type of stuff, but don't expect anybody to take you seriously with it when we all watched the game and can go back and check.

 

It's almost like we had that in someone named jalen green.. but got rid of him over just trading FVV and Brooks

 

nm

 

Yea he was wayyyy too obvious and revealing information he never should have revealed also lol. Just an idiot.

 

In the long term, if it forces the ROckets to realize building their team around Sengun is dumb as **** it's a good thing.

 

LOL you start with “good lord that’s a lot of typing, and proceed to type even more

 

I hope it's a wakeup call to the team that the coach and gm is dumb af and needs to go.