In a cruel bit of irony, the Lakers are beating Mike D'Antoni and the Rockets at their own game. https://t.co/lLdytdI7XO
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) September 11, 2020
Lakers embrace D’Antoni’s vision, out-small ball Rockets
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September 10, 2020 2 Comments
The reason the Lakers were able to ‘out-small ball’ the Rockets is they have players who are taller and better at playing small.
In fact, LeBron James and Anthony Davis are probably the ideal prototype players for small ball offense and defense.
Replacing JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard with Anthony Davis just to have more 3-point shooters but running the same 3-out and 4-out sets is not ‘small ball.’ It’s ‘tall ball’ with small players.
The last 2 games, the Lakers replaced JaVale McGee with Markieff Morris and played 5-out sets to stretch defenses and unclog paint. That is small ball.
What is becoming more and more obvious is that the Lakers roster is actually better suited to play small ball than tall ball.