If ever there was a test of two competing philosophies in the modern NBA this is it. Mike D’Antoni’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Rockets versus the team with some of the NBA’s most dominant and skilled size. This series between the LA and Houston promises to be a barn burner.
- When stars collide. Both teams have some high-wattage star power. Between Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James and Anthony Davis you have MVPs, scoring champs, league assist leaders, All Defense, All NBA…the list goes on and on. Whichever team best corrals the other’s superstars will be in a great position to advance. The time-tested stratagem of “let the role players beat you” will hold court in this series, as well.
- Make the three ball race competitive. Let’s not kid ourselves, the Rockets are going to shoot a grip more three pointers than we will. They’ll probably make more than we take in a game or two. That is to be expected and we don’t need to re-invent our team identity to beat the Rockets. We do need to make that a more competitive contest than it has shown itself to be thus far. Can’t let them hit threes at above a 35% clip (lower could mean an easy series for us) and we need to hit at least 35% of ours.
- Winning the battle at the stripe. It’s no secret that James Harden is a master at manipulating contact to draw fouls. While I feel that power is less effective in the post-season (refs tend to let more contact/flopping slide in the playoffs) it’s worth noting that we can’t allow James Harden or any other Rocket to live at the stripe. If we can keep the Rockets at around 18-20 FTA/game we’ll be doing a solid job defensively.
- Stay with what got you here but don’t be afraid to adjust and adapt. magicman made a great point about Milwaukee not making any in-game adjustments in their series. the Lakers can’t fall into that trap against Houston. I’m all for seeing if JaVale and Dwight can make a difference on the glass and in the paint but if we’re getting killed on switches and if they’re not closing out on shooters effectively than coach Vogel has to have a quicker trigger than he’s generally shown to make a change. It’s the playoffs and we want to set the tone in game 1 not have it dictated to us. If we struggle in the first game or two don’t be surprised to see AD start at the 5 with more shooters. if we win game 1 and show that our style is better suited to playoff basketball than Houston’s it’ll force them to adapt to us.
- Win game 1. Will Houston look like Denver tonight? Gassed out and reeling from a grueling 7 game series or will they ride Westbrook’s return to action and keep hitting enough threes to compete? My guess is #2. Westbrook will be in attack-mode, Covington, Tucker, et al are going to rain threes. James Harden is still James Harden. We need to attack Harden and Westbrook on defense, wear them out guarding bigger guys (even at the expense of a couple of fouls) and make them expend energy on defense. While we’re a good fast break team that is based as much off of our defense as it is our team foot speed. Long shots equal long rebounds, everyone needs to be prepared to battle for long misses and not rely on AD and a center to grab the board. I believe our team is the better team and there’s no better time to show that than tonight.
Enjoy the second round, Lakerholics, been a hot minute since we made it this far so remember to stop and smell the roses. Than get back to screaming at your screen and hopping up and down when we make a great play. Go Lakers.
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