Rockets have a massive Kevin Durant problem they never saw coming

The Rockets thought their offense would be saved in Game 2 by the return of Kevin Durant, but KD faded in the second half as Houston had another disappointing output. After scoring 20 points in the first half to keep the game close, Durant had just 3 points (along with 5 turnovers) in the second half as the Rockets fell behind in the series 2-0. There's still time to turn things around, but the Rockets would have never expected Durant to settle when they needed him most.

Kevin Durant needs to maintain his aggression throughout the game

It wasn't just that Durant took good looks and missed them in the second half. Instead, he simply did not shoot enough. Durant finished the game shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line for an efficient 23 points. But the alarming stat is that he was 4th on the team in total field goal attempts.

Durant's presence allowed Alperen Sengun to bounce back from a disastrous Game 1 with 20 points on 9-of-20 shooting in Game 2. But there's no reason for Sengun to have nearly twice the field goal attempts of Durant. Especially not when Durant was hot and pouring in the points during the first half of this game.

Even more alarming is the fact that Jabari Smith Jr and Tari Eason also took more field goals than Durant. Both of these young players are finding a new level of aggression this year, but they're not talented enough to justify taking more shots than Durant. You can't fault the young guys either; after all, somebody had to take shots in the second half.

This is a problem that KD has run into during the later stretch of his career. He's been an extremely efficient scorer for practically his entire NBA tenure, but there are some times when you would prefer that he trade in some level of efficiency for more volume and aggression. In a must-win game, I'd rather have my superstar and top 10 scorer of all time shoot 30 times inefficiently than a conservative and efficient 15 attempts.

The Rockets could be asking too much of Durant

Durant was also hounded throughout the game by double teams and it led to 9 total turnovers for him. Plenty were on him, but several were also the results of bad catches by his teammates. Even when he hit them squarely in their hands, they sometimes lost the ball.

Asking Durant to be the team's primary scorer AND playmaker could be a lot at his age. This isn't the spry KD of his OKC days anymore; the Rockets need to find ways to get his best without overtaxing him.

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