5 Things: Rockets primed for launch, Lakers looking lackadaisical

Don’t let the similarities of the game one loss to Portland and what we witnessed tonight fool you. Houston has a defensive identity that starts with P.J. Tucker and ends with a well-orchestrated switch and collapse scheme the Trailblazers can only hope to deploy. Harden and Westbrook are better than Dame and McCollum. Eric Gordon’s 3rd option skill set is a better one than Melo’s (I consider Anthony to be the superior player, however). Lakers have their work cut out for them. Still, there were a lot of elements of this game to the one against the Trailblazers.

1. We lost the battle of the boards 41-41. That’s not a poorly typed sentence my friends. By playing to a draw on the glass the Lakers lost the rebound battle. Sure, we grabbed more offensive rebounds (10-4) but that’s s much a byproduct of us missing a bunch of shots as it is box out acumen. But we didn’t get after it on the glass. Give Houston credit, they have the players suited to play their style of basketball and it’s giving the Lakers fits. Everything about how Houston plays funnels into itself to turn what feels like what should be a negative is re-routed into something positive. No player close to 7 feet tall? No worries, long shots lead to long rebounds and our guards have been crashing the glass for months. Lakers need to be better on the boards to have a shot at moving forward.
2. James Harden and Russell Westbrook were better than LeBron James and Anthony Davis tonight. I’m not talking about the box score, even though that also reveals that our superstars were thoroughly outplayed, but our two guys just didn’t bring ‘it’ never reached that 5th gear. Had no pop in the 4th when we had some chances to make it a game. They need to find that extra gear by Sunday and I think they can
3. That felt like a lot of Rajon Rondo. Personally, I think they should start Caruso. He’s good enough. I don’t think they will, I think Vogel goes with Rondo as a starter and it’s going to be painful. Playoff Rondo may win you a game but there’s no denying we need better shooting and defense from that position in this series. Also Rajon hasn’t played in, like, 6th months. I get it, he’s chomping at the bit and has more than a modicum of mamba mentality. But he doesn’t need to play 25 minutes per game. I’d rather see Waiters. But if anyone’s minutes suffer it needs to be Rondo’s. Even though KCP has really started slow, Rondo doesn’t look like he’s up to playoff speed.
4. Using our advantages better. Entertain, for a moment, a world in which Frank Vogel makes zero rotation adjustments. Doles out minutes roughly the same. A world where our only real adjustment is to just, you know, play better. What does that world look like in a win? It looks like Anthony Davis posting up 7 or so feet closer to the basket for a lot more our possessions, he can’t let Tucker stop him twenty feet out and expect to break him down. It looks like LeBron James showing up in the 4th quarter. James did not seem engaged, especially in the second half. Not at the level we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Kyle Kuzma needs to play as well as Eric Gordon. Didn’t happen tonight, Kuz seemed to be off his game. Like how pretty much the whole team was. Caruso needs to not commit fouls. He had a great game cooking but picked up some bad fouls and that sort of forced us, evidently, into so much Rondo.
5. The question of energy. I, for one, was skeptical but willing to entertain the idea that the Rockets were a team playing on fumes. Seeing How Denver came out flat and looked gas after their 7 game series seemed to open the door a crack that, maybe, the Rockets would have a similar showing. Nope, Harden looked solid, Westbrook played with the pedal to the metal and the rest of that Houston squad looked sharp and ready to go. We need to bring that energy to game 2.