Charles Barkley rips ‘awful to watch’ Rockets offense after Lakers take Game 1 in NBA playoffs

The Houston Rockets offense crumbled against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, and Charles Barkley wasn’t particularly impressed.

Kevin Durant sat out Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series after sustaining a knee injury during practice, and without him, Houston fell flat.

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Los Angeles was also short-handed heading into the game, and played without stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

Still, they managed to cobble together enough offense to take the first meeting 107-98 at home.

The Rockets are confident Durant’s knee will not be a major issue during this series, and according to NBA legend Barkley, his return can’t come soon enough.

Charles Barkley slams ‘awful’ Houston offense

After watching Houston drop Game 1 of their series against Los Angeles, Chuck branded their offense ‘awful to watch’ without KD.

“They just play one-on-one basketball,” Barkley, who recently revealed he’s talking to fellow great Michael Jordan again, began.

“It’s better when it’s Kevin Durant and (Alperen) Sengun, but they don’t run plays. It’s like everybody goes one-on-one.

“You look at the game, you’re like, ‘What are they doing?’ They’re just, whoever gets it, shoots it.

“If you look at them through the entire regular season, we said they don’t have a point guard. But they did have Kevin Durant to cover up all their flaws.”

Barkley then zeroed in on a muddled Rockets offense, which shot 37.6% from the floor against the Lakers.

He added: “I have no idea what kind offense they’re running.

“Whoever gets it just jacks it up, anywhere, anytime. Everybody’s got a green light.

“Shaq and Kenny (Smith) know, everybody on the team don’t have no damn green light.

“There’s one, maybe two guys on an NBA team like, ‘You can shoot it when you want to.’ Then, the rest of the guys can have some shots.

“There’s no reason to what they’re doing out there, it was awful to watch, offensively.”

Houston finished just 33.3% from three-point range on Saturday night, and suffered through unimaginative play-calling and poor execution.

Rockets coach calls for improved shooting display in Game 2

Things will need to change on Tuesday night, if the Rockets are to have any hope of rescuing the series.

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“We won a lot of areas and just shot it poorly, honestly,” coach Ime Udoka said after the loss.

“When you shoot at thirty-seven and a half and 33 from three, and on the other end they shoot 61 per cent and fifty-two and a half from three, it’s going to be tough to beat.”

Udoka added that his team have to put their poor Game 1 performance behind them quickly.

“We got to flush that part of it and bounce back on Tuesday,” he said.

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“Opportunities missed… but we got to move on.”

It’s not yet clear if Durant will be back to steady the Rockets offense for Game 2.

His teammates, and Barkley, will no doubt be desperate to see the 16-time All-Star return, because if the Lakers go 2-0 up, it will be a tough climb back.

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