No, Rockets' Jabari Smith Jr. Didn't Single out Kevin Durant

The Houston Rockets have lost four consecutive games against the Los Angeles Lakers, dating back to the regular season. The Rockets did manage to pull out a victory on Christmas Day, in a rather convincing fashion, might I add.

To the tune of a 119-96 blowout. But that was the regular season. It's no longer relevant or useful anymore.

Unless discussing the Lakers' defensive coverages on Kevin Durant. The Lakers blitzed and trapped Durant during the Rockets' home and home pair of games against the Lakers in March and Lakers coach JJ Redick found success with the defensive strategy.

Durant not only had an uptick in turnovers (7 turnovers in the first game of the back-to-back and 5.5 turnovers on average during those two games), but the approach also limited Durant's touches and shots. Durant had just 11 shots in one of those games and averaged 13.5 shot attempts in the two games.

The home and home stretch offered a precursor of things to come for Durant vs the Rockets during the postseason matchup. Well, it should have, at least.

Neither Durant nor Rockets coach Ime Udoka was prepared for the double teams and traps, when Redick deployed the strategy in March. The Rockets had a month to prepare for Redick's defensive schemes and strategies.

Surely they'd be prepared this time, right? At least, one would imagine. But that hasn't quite been the case.

Granted, Durant missed Game 1 of the series, due to injury. However, Game 2 saw much of the same struggles against the blitz.

Durant had nine turnovers -- more than the number of shots that he made in the game, in which he went 7-of-12 from the field. Again, his shot attempts were also down.

During the regular season, Durant averaged 17.6 shots per contest, which led the team. He's struggled to adapt to the traps.

Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. wants Durant to not allow the double teams to affect him as much as they have, as he's calling on both Durant and the team to beat the blitzes.

"If they’re just trying to stop him, then the other guys gotta be aggressive, we’ve gotta be aggressive out of it. We’ve gotta make the right reads out of it. Make the right decisions.

And it’s on him to find ways to get himself involved and get to his spots…excluding the double team. Just because he’s getting double teamed, we still need him to be KD. So, you know, it’s still ways around it. We’ve got some fixes to it and we’re gonna be better these next two games."

This has been spun as Smith calling out Durant, but it's important to note the quote in its entirety. Smith didn't single out Durant. He first stated that the team needs to adapt, by being more aggressive and making the right decisions.

Which is entirely true. The team could help Durant, by making more open 3-point shots, or by flashing middle. It's not just on Durant. But he does bear some responsibility, especially when noting his turnovers.

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