Alperen Şengün Emerges as the Young Leader the Rockets Need — How His Speech Could End Up Stressing LeBron James

Kevin Durant is stuck in a nightmare, too hurt to play in the playoffs after showing up for the Houston Rockets all season long, logging the second most minutes in the entire NBA at age 37. He’s suddenly reduced to hearing from both Twitter trolls who don’t know any better and some national NBA voices who definitely should that he doesn’t care enough about this Rockets team. Both Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams have been long out. The young Rockets are on their own, more than ever, likely for as long as this first round series with the LA Lakers lasts. As long as they make it last. Alperen Şengün, the most experienced of these five starters all aged 21 to 23, is doing everything he can to keep it going, to bring some unexpected drama and stress back into LeBron James’ life.

First, Şengün stepped into the player leadership void created by all those absences, all those injury could bes, and delivered a speech that clearly moved his remaining teammates. Then he took it right at the Lakers, getting to the rim again and again in a 14-point first half, driving their centers mad, even getting the Lakers’ most effective player on this night (Deandre Ayton) ejected.

Sweep denied. Now go make it a series. That is what a win in Game 5 Wednesday night in Los Angeles would do. If the Rockets can push this series back to a Game 6 at Toyota Center, then they will put real pressure on a Lakers team still without Luka Dončić and Austin Reeves for now. Then Şengün will be a true extender.

Right now, the NBA world still largely expect a gentleman’s sweep in this series. Şengün and these young Rockets may have their swagger back though. Bouncing back from one of the more horrific collapses in late-game NBA history, losing a six-point lead in the final 30 seconds in Game 3, is not easy. Şengün knew the Rockets needed to shake things up.

So he did the shaking. He gathered his teammates together after the morning shootaround and give a impassioned talk to them.

“Just the belief aspect,” Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. says of Şengün’s speech. “Just the family that we have here. Just pulling us together and letting us know that whatever happens — win, lose or draw — these next few games, we’re going to go out with fight. We’re going to go out swinging. We’re going to go out together.

“We’re going to go out doing the right things that got us here. . . “That’s basically what he was saying. And rallying us together. It was a good talk. And we needed it for sure.”

The Rockets went from the talk to a 115-96 blowout of the Lakers, winning every quarter but the last meaningless one. Sweep denied. Now go make it a series. This series really should be tied 2-2 instead of the 3-1 Lakers reality, but Rockets coach Ime Udoka deserves credit for not letting the Game 3 collapse beat Houston twice.

By making his young team watch their mistakes in those closing 30 seconds of regulation in the locker room right after the game, Udoka gave them a chance to move on in time for this quick-turnaround Game 4. Then Şengün changed things up, made sure there would be no sleepwalking to a sweep.

“Well, I didn’t give up on this series and I just wanted to let everybody know,” Alperen Şengün says of his speech. “I just like want to do something different. Just going through the game, watching the films, I just wanted to do something different. And I’m glad it worked out and everybody came out to play today.

“And hopefully everybody’s mindset’s changed, go to a fifth game. And we saw it today. Really happy for that.”

“We’re going to go out doing the right things that got us here. . . “That’s basically what he was saying. And rallying us together. It was a good talk. And we needed it for sure.” — Jabari Smith on Alperen Şengün’s speech

The Rockets may have found a younger leader. Şengün’s honestly about his own defensive shortcomings, noting after the game that he tries hard but knows he needs his more defensively talented teammates’ help, is the kind of honesty that plays well in a locker room. Şengün will not turn 24 until July, but he’s already in his fifth NBA season, his second playoffs.

Jayson Tatum won his first playoff series at age 20. LeBron James won his first at age 21. Donovan Mitchell also won a series at 21. Luka Dončic did at 22. Nikola Jokić pulled it off in an epic seven game series at age 24. Youth cannot be an excuse. The Rockets’ young core needs to start winning when it truly counts. This Game 4 response is a start.

Sweep denied. Now go make it a series.

All five of the Rockets young starters score at least 15 points. The Lakers cannot keep Amen Thompson, who is averaging 20.5 points, 6.8 assists and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 54 percent from the field in this series, from getting to the rim. LA cannot prevent Tari Eason from creating havoc in this own 20 point, eight rebound, five steal Sunday night. More importantly, Eason is making LeBron’s life taxing, helping force The King into 16 turnovers in the last two games.

“He was a menace,” Thompson says of his defensive spirit animal.

Jabari Smith finishes a plus 24 in a game-high 42 minutes. Reed Sheppard hits four threes — and shows plenty of fight, getting three steals, diving on the floor to beat LeBron to one.

Neither Reed Sheppard or Jabari Smith Jr. made any excuses for their late-game turnovers that helped doom the Rockets to an 0-3 hole in this series. They took on the burden of their mistakes. And made the Lakers feel their pain in Game 4.

It’s a start. A speech, steals (17 of them in all for the Rockets) and a sweep prevented.

This does not have to be a completely lost season for these Rockets. Not if Şengün, Thompson, Smith and Sheppard find something about themselves. Like how to inspire a team.

“Pulling us all back in there and being like that’s not how we end it,” Thompson  says of Şengün’s speech. “If we’re going to go out, we’re going to go out with a fight.”

This is a franchise built on fight in so many ways. About having to earn it.

After burying his father, the truly original Vic Fertitta, in Galveston on Thursday (with people lining up along the Seawall to pay tribute to an island icon), Tilman Fertitta watched the Rockets blow that six-point lead in the final 30 seconds of regulation from his usual court-side seat on Friday night. Tilman couldn’t stick around to see the young Rockets pull themselves off the mat with force in Sunday night’s series-extending blowout, a testament to how seriously he takes his United States Ambassador to Italy duties.

But Fertitta’s team is playing on. For at least one more NBA night.

Sweep denied. Now go make it a series.