Los Angeles – It was like an eliminatory match in many ways. It was defensive, grinding, at points feeling more like a return to a 2003 match. It was certainly not always pretty.
But it was enlightening.
The Lakers beat a team of rockets on Monday evening the second night of a consecutive 104-98. Although we did not want to read too much in a single match, he highlighted these teams before the playoffs because of his intensity. Here are my three take -out dishes.
The western qualifiers will be Blood Bath
We say that every year. We REALLY means this year.
This Rockets / Lakers force test was a perfect example: two of the four best teams in the West locked a physical game filled with small chess matches. For example, the Lakers have become small with Dorian Finney-Smith as a center to space the ground and pull the large of the rockets from painting; The Rockets have countered by playing two seven feet – Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams – to try to dominate the little Lakers. And then there was Dillon Brooks who was trying to go under the skin of LeBron James. Just like ancient times.
Now imagine all this and more with the additional urgency and intensity of the playoffs.
The West is a conference where the current seed n ° 8 has 11 games on .500 (43-32), has one defense among the first three in the league, and these Clippers present the future temple of Kawhi Leonard renown and James Harden. (By way of comparison, the four teams directed towards the game in the East are less than .500.)
The small range of Lakers can defend
When is the last time you saw Luka Doncic Hustle like that in defense?
“They emptied the tank on the defensive,” said Lakers coach, JJ Redick, not only of Donic but his team. It is this defensive effort that should give hope to fans of the Lakers.
The blow of the chances of the Lakers during a race in the playoffs is directly linked to their defense – Austin Reaves and Doncouic are defenders inferior to the average which will be targeted in an eliminatory series, and there is no large traditional man offering a rim protection behind them to clean the disorder.
Except that the defense of the lakers thrives anyway (at least when LeBron James is healthy). For a few nights (against Memphis and Houston), the Lakers have shown that these smaller alignments have been very active and aggressive on the defensive level. He threw the rockets for stretching.
“Well, defensively, it’s just to pack the painting and the gang rebound. I think we did it tonight,” said Redick about the defense. “LeBron (James) eight rebounds, Austin (Reaves) eight rebounds, Luka (Dončić) six rebounds, Doe (Dorian Finney-Smith) six rebounds, Gabe (Vincent) four rebounds and Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt) six rebounds. This is how we have glass by the committee. ”.
What makes it all work is the versatility of LeBron. It was fantastic much of the night, covering in particular Sangun, using his physique to slow down one of the main centers of the Rockets offensive. He did not do it alone, the Lakers did an excellent job to deal with Sengun with points, bringing the two teams and removing what he wanted to do.
“I thought we were very locked up with our game plan and what we wanted to do …” said LeBron. “We understood that we had to classify ourselves on our keys on the defensive level to win the match.”
LeBron seemed to be everywhere, and he had the key block for Los Angeles.
With Jaxson Hayes his only big traditional, Redick will go small during the playoffs and the defense of the Lakers will be tested. However, with wings like Dorain Finney-Smith and Jared Vanderbilt, the defense of the Lakers could be quite good.
Who is Houston’s choice of choice?
This is the question asked by many in the league circles on the Rockets and their potential for a race in deep playoff series: who is their guy of choice to obtain a bucket in the clutch? Reggie Miller spoke of the broadcast.
In times when the defense of the Lakers gave Houston adjustments, this lack of a clearly number one guy who could be a relief valve has stood out. The Rockets do not have a guy in whom they trust to replenish them, get a bucket and change the momentum of the game. Houston does by Committee – Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Sengun – all with their veteran (and the guy with the ring) Fred Vanvleet as set of table. This can work, it’s a deep team, but this approach allows them to go down to points. One of these points was against the Lakers, when the Rockets did not break 100 against an Aggressive Lakers D.
To be fair, the rockets were the second night of a consecutive and tired leg may have been behind some of the 3 missed points. Then there were turnover.
“The difference is to make shots and limit turnover,” said Amen Thompson. “We had two reversals at the end that we did not need. Without these, it could have been a different game. I think our defense was pretty good, but we just needed to score more.”
Who comes back to whom is the essential person of the offense. This is something that the playoffs will tell us about the Rockets – or it will say to the front office he needs to get a player like that.
