Biggest NBA Playoffs Concerns for Contenders Outside OKC

Now that the NBA playoffs are upon us, I think we can all agree on one thing.

San Antonio plays Boston in the finals. Amirite?

Defending champ Oklahoma City has the added burden of attacking history in its quest to repeat. As good as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, and as oppressive as their defense, the Thunder would be the first team to repeat since the Kevin Durant-Steph Curry-Steve Kerr Golden State Warriors in 2017-18.

Not that OKC will be an early out. A group that has been together as long as the Thunder has the innate advantage of knowing who's who and what's what.

Some others, not as much.

Houston, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers will enter the playoffs with a new core group, which does not necessarily bode well for a long run.

Let's start with Houston.

The Rockets have won six straight, and it is not inconceivable that they play their way into the No. 3 seed in the West given Luka Doncic's injury and a relatively light remaining schedule.

Coach Ime Udoka deserves a lot of credit in remodeling his group. With Oklahoma City on top in the West and San Antonio closing fast, the Rockets built back better this summer by acquiring Durant to be the premier scoring threat.

Yet as Robbie Burns noted, the best laid schemes of mice and men "gang aft agley," and Fred VanVleet's season-ending knee injury gang-aft-agley-ed the team into a world without a true facilitator.

The Rockets did what they had to do. They pounded the glass and accentuated their height and physicality behind Durant, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith, pre-injury Steven Adams. Athletic, bouncy 6-foot-7 guard Amen Thompson was often their smallest starter.

Houston leads the league in rebounding and offensive rebounding but is in the lower third in assists and turnovers, which goes directly to inefficient guard play. They are 8-2 since 6-2 guard Reed Sheppard entered the starting lineup on March 20, but the playoffs will provide a different challenge.

Cavs

Cleveland made a major win-now move when it acquired James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers at the trade deadline. The question remains which Harden they received, the Hall of Fame scorer or the Hall of Fame distributor. He has done both.

Early signs are promising. Harden seems to have modified his game for the better since joining the Cavaliers, as both his scoring average and shots per game have dropped.

Harden has made the playoffs in each of his 17 seasons, but close-out games have been an issue.

Maybe Harden has been asked to do too much, but his team is only 3-4 in Game 7s and he has shot 35.5%. He had nine points in the 76ers' second-round loss to Boston in 2023 and seven points in the Clippers' first-round loss to Denver a year ago.

His team has not made it out of the second round since the Rockets fell to Golden State in the 2018 West finals. The Cavs remain reliant on ball movement and outside shooting, and they need Harden to do both.

Lakers

The Lakers have had a strong year thanks to Doncic, but his left hamstring injury casts a pall. When will he return? Will he be the same guy? Will the injury recur? Why did he go to Europe for treatment?

The Lakers win with offense. They lead the league in field goal percentage behind the three-headed attack of Doncic (33.5 points, 47.6%), Austin Reeves (23.3 points, 49.0%) and LeBron James (20.8 points, 51.2%).

Even a short-term loss of Doncic would be problematic because the Lakers do not defend well. Opponents shoot 48.4 percent from the floor, and former No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton still has trouble navigating the pick-and-roll and is not a physical presence inside.

Teenager Cooper Flagg dropped 45 and a near triple-double in Dallas' victory over the Lakers on Sunday, not a good sign.