With last night’s defeat at the hand of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Houston Rockets face a bevy of questions. Because it wasn’t that they lost. A four-seed falling to the one-seed is hardly a blow-it-up situation in and of itself. But it’s how they lost.
So the questions do abound, and none are perhaps bigger than what happens to Mike D’Antoni, who now has an expired contract. The architect of Houston’s small-ball approach holds the highest win percentage in franchise history at .682 (217-101), and his teams have made it at least to the second round of the playoffs in all four years at the helm.