Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni isn’t overly concerned with Kevin Durant‘s monster scoring nights—D’Antoni thinks Houston “can withstand that.”
KD’s 37 points led the Golden State Warriors in their 119-106 Game 1 victory.
D’Antoni cited turnovers, missed layups and poor transition defense as deciding factors in the Rockets’ series-opening loss.
Per ESPN:
“He is 7 feet and falling away. He’s one of the best scorers ever, right? So I thought he was extremely good. But we can withstand that,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said after his team lost 119-106 at home on Monday. “We can’t withstand turning the ball over, missing layups, them getting out. Klay Thompson got up 15 [3-pointers]. We can’t give him 15 3s. We’re switching everything and staying off for that reason, so we have to clean up some stuff and see if we can do it on Wednesday.”
The Warriors will test D’Antoni’s theory to see if Durant’s heroics can be withstood if the Rockets do clean up the other aspects of their game. Even though Golden State would rather play a ball-movement-oriented brand of basketball, the plan for Game 2 will be to continually feed Durant.
“I was just taking what the defense gives me,” Durant said after going 14-of-27 from the field and 3-for-6 from 3-point territory. “Just trying to be aggressive when I had the ball and forceful when I had the ball. [There are] some shots that I wish I could have back. There was a floater that I shot, I want to say the fourth or third, that was short. I hate shooting shots like that. I miss them early, and I felt they were good shots.”
