ClutchFans Game Thread: Lakers @ Rockets 4/24/2026 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 3)

still thinking about Ime's infatuation with JT's defense. JO won a game during the regular season playing free safety. JO is smarter than anyone on the bench in a defensive stop situation, we have seen the proof, and Ime still went with JT.

 

That foul on Smart was dumb as hell. I am not a fan of these defensive substitutions. It is very difficult for guys who haven’t played at all to have any rhythm.

 

So, first off: happy we lost. Like genuinely. When we were up I was waiting for mistakes or missed shots. I’ve done this in the past but not to this degree. So when it was tied up at 101, I was grinning ear to ear.
I do not like this team as a whole and I want it to fail miserably.

Why? So drastic changes are made. I want national and local media to embarrass us, talk about how we’re the 2nd team out of 2000 to lose after being up 6 with 30 seconds left. I want Ime to be called out for his mismanagement of his players, has no offensive game plan, how he’s all bark and no bite, and his Celtics mistakes that are repeating here.

I want Stone to be called out for the DFS and Capela signings. The former because he was injured and already slowing down, the latter because he was out of shape, did not fit our needs and you knew Ime wouldn’t play him that much anyway. I want him to be embarrassed with his own words that maybe it’s just not our season - fireable offense tbh - and not getting a PG.

Lastly, I want Tari to be called out for being dumb and a bad teammate. Sengun for his whining. Jabari for unable to dribble and being soft. But mostly, KD for quitting and being a locker room cancer. Those burners account messages are serious and nobody in our organisation dared to deal with it. Oh and can our owner be clowned for being a fascist and pedophile’s friend?

My favorite moment of the game: DFS trying to get past Luke / Laravia or whatever he’s called. He immediately backed off, realizing he cannot dribble and it lead to a bad shot by a teammate who got it with a few seconds left.

Okogie going from starting to bench and 4 minutes has to be the dumbest mishandling of rotations by a coach ever. Cannot tell me that these guys are happy with Ime. Throwing the players under the bus is also an immature tactic of a dinosaur coach. And he admitted players don’t listen to him. Hahaha, what a **** show. Let’s get this over with, sweep baby.

If we win game 4, I can handle that so players can feel good about something maybe. And my prediction of Lakers in 5 coming true. But do it without KD please.

Btw saw some whining about the refs, I saw refs that were actively trying to help us as the Lakers were getting soft fouls called against them. The only thing that was seriously egregious were the jump balls against Sengun. He was right to be livid about that.

Heeyyy we have a winner! I was trying to come up with a good play on that but don’t need to, you just did.

 

Don't care we lost or how we lost. Just here to read the garm.

 

Wemby is Yao 2.0

They aren't going anywhere other than some nice regular seasons.

 

Based on a game?

 

If this how you want to cope with us wasting 5 years of tanking to get no superstar/ franchise changing player then sure wemby is Yao at the end of the day the reality is rockets failed to amount to anything because the FO failed to draft correctly

 

Not sure why people are trashing Reed. It's his first playoff series. You can’t expect curry results when curry was at some school no one had heard of at the same age.

He will get better. Most of these guys will.

It will take a better system to do it though.

 

Look, i wanted Mobley and not green. I get it.

But let's not pretend it was an awful tank. I still think Amen could be better than Wemby because Wemby might be out of the league by 28 or 29 due to his health.

Sengun has bad nights but more good than bad.

Reed is just getting started.

A new coach could do wonders for this team. Ime can coach defense but he's not adept at putting players in positions to enhance their strengths.

 

Agendas and emotions. I’m ok with Reed going through growing pains.

 

Nope it wasn't a bad dream

 

This physically hurts me watching this

 

Tari Eason's effort as absolutely abysmal last night. And for a guy whose entire value is from "effort" that really is inexcusable.

 

Byyeee

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...rant-lakers-series-injury-update-22225484.php

So, will he be around to try to stave off a sweep?

“Up in the air,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka deemed Durant’s status after the Rockets suffered a devastating 112-108 overtime loss in Friday night’s Game 3.

He was a game-time decision when he arrived at Toyota Center on Friday, but eventually was ruled out. Udoka said Durant didn’t sit with the team on the bench during Game 3 because he was receiving treatment.

“I think he made some progress in the last few days, but we’ll see what happens with only one day in between (games),” Udoka said after Friday’s loss.

 

Wow. We had a 6 point lead with 30 seconds left. Not surprised at all by Jabari and Ime.

This is probably our 50th plus game we lose in clutch situations under Udoka

 

Lakers starters +/-: -6 (206 mins)
Lakers bench +/-: +26 (59 mins)

Rockets starters +/-: +24 (230 mins)
Rockets bench +/-: -44 (35 mins)

Rockets have a very sub par bench.. the plus/minus sum of a team equals the game's final score's differential x 5 (number of players).

-44 for the bench means not only they suck together, but also they suck when playing together with the starters. The bench players' impact was so high that they skewed the starters impact as well. This is an incredible stat, considering bench only played 35 mins total (compared to 59 minutes for Lakers bench).

I am not saying the starters or Udoka were without fault, they were, but DFS has to be the biggest disappointment of this year. Tate and Capela are close seconds.

I don't trust Udoka as a coach, I think he has to go, but the bench has to do with Stone as well. The production from bench was horrible all year.

 

lol the Macro / Micro - BS narrative army is quick. Pre-written scripts. They win however the outcome is. Always sees silver linings that are in fact cognitive biases.

Guess what Ben, I’ll talk about silver linings when we win the first playoff series in six years (let alone losing in this comical style).

 

The ignore feature helps, I didn’t even know who you were talking to

anytime someone doesn’t respect their own time they’ll pull you into their endless stupid discussion. That guy also has very little understanding of basketball.

 

By the numbers:
- All 5 of the young core started and scored 105 of the team's 108 points.
- 36 bench minutes and 3 bench points are both (unofficially) the lowest of any team in any game all season. I've been tracking bench production throughout the league all year. The previous low minutes was 50 and fewest points 5 (Utah).
- "Non-shooter" Castle went 3-of-4 on threes for SA last night. He would have to go only an additional 1-of-9 to match Sheppard's total.

 

That’s being kind, that team had harden

this is the most bleak team in history