Rockets’ Season Disappointingly Ends with First-Round Exit

On Friday night, the Houston Rockets’ season officially ended, suffering a Game 6 loss to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It was an odd season from start to finish, featuring highs, lows and plenty in between.

Superstar Kevin Durant made his mark, seeing a healthy regular season and playing in 78 of 82 games. Despite that, his initial year with Houston would disappointingly end with him having played in just one of the six postseason games, suffering a knee bruise prior to the series and a compounding ankle injury in Game 2.

He averaged 26.0 points on the season on his usual effective shooting, though things never quite felt sync’d up without lead guard Fred VanVleet, who missed the entire season.

The Rockets’ young core saw mixed results. Second-year guard Reed Sheppard saw a massive boost after a questionable first season, and continued to trend upward throughout the season on both ends. Despite that, the core of Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason failed to continue their own upward trends, largely leveling out as Houston went up and down the standings.

The Rockets have now been eliminated at home in five of their last six playoff appearances

2017. 2018. 2019. 2025. And now 2026. pic.twitter.com/JQoHSH9xzu
— SleeperRockets (@SleeperRockets) May 2, 2026

Last season, the Rockets snuck to No. 2 in the Western Conference, and showed fight against the Warriors in the first round. With Durant added, there were expectations of making the second round this season, if not competing further. Though the roller-coaster season culminated in being eliminated in six games.

Given the nature of the series loss to LA, which included four games under 100 points scored, it’s hard not to envision changes of some capacity on the horizon for Houston. That may not be anything drastic — VanVleet and the return of center Steven Adams, mixed with added time spent together — are sure to help. But the Lakers showed that the Rockets are far off from where they want to be.

The Rockets are likely to keep an open mind heading into the offseason. There isn't likely to be anything completely off the table. Durant continued his superstar production, but is 37 and will be looking to contend for championships in his final years. Alperen Sengun is now a two-time All-Star and is supremely talented, but has real flaws in his games in terms of the posteason. And a lack of star leaps across the rest of the young core could make them expendable for the right price.

The good news is that the Rockets won't be pidgeonhole'd into any specific moves, with plenty of options to move foward with. But change is almost certainly on the horizon in Houston.

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