The Rockets are coming home to Houston. Not to start their off season, but to play Game 6 of their first round series with the Lakers. The series is now 3-2 in favor of the Lakers, and of course it’s easy to see a world where they Rockets would be ahead 3-2. They aren’t, of course, but they also have a chance to do what has never been done before, and win a playoff series from down 3 games to 0. That would be a lot of fun to see.
The next step towards both history and improbability was taken tonight in Los Angeles. Austin Reaves, in the running for “Least Ethical Player In The NBA”. was playing again. (Reaves scored more points from the free throw line than the field tonight, and he scored 22.) The Lakers were, of course, without Luka Doncic, and the Rockets without Kevin Durant. I would now rate this series as a fair fight. Despite the Rockets also going without their presumed starting point guard Fred VanVleet, and center Steven Adams. Any Laker complaints about being short handed should cease at this point, as both Rockets wins were accomplished against a Laker team with Austin “Headwhip” Reaves.
On to the game. In short, the win was typical of how the young Rockets of the past two season often won games. They played active, tough, defense. They scored just enough to win. The Rockets turned the Lakers over 15 times tonight, and 10 of those turnovers were steals. They lost the rebounding battle, 41 to 34, mostly due to Deandre Ayton showing that the main stumbling block to greater career success is not his ability. He had 17 rebounds, and the next highest Laker player had 6.
Another notable aspect of the Rockets attack is that they shot 40 3pt shots. If you have a slow, fairly low output offense (and the Rockets offense in the playoffs this season has definitely been both), three pointers can help a lot. They did tonight, as the Rockets made 14-40 for a perfectly reasonable 35%. Jabari Smith had a great night, going 4-9, but no Rocket had an awful night from three, and that’s the big difference. Holiday and Okogie went 1-4, and Sheppard went 2-7, but Dorian Finney-Smith(!) and Amen Thompson(!) went 2-5. DFS has been much more of what the Rockets expected this season in the playoffs. It’s very welcome. A decent percentage on a high volume of threes does as much as as a good percentage on a high volume of twos, most of the time.
Of course, what has made winning possible at all, given the Rockets typically low scoring offense, is their defense. Tonight Los Angeles was held to 93 points. I think it’s somewhat under appreciated how difficult having Kevin Durant in the lineup can make the Rockets preferred style of defense. It’s understandable that given his age, and offensive load, that Durant wouldn’t be a top defender, and it certainly helps that he’s 7’ tall. He also barely moves on defense much of the time, and doesn’t switch. This causes many problems for the defense we just didn’t see tonight. Even with the much maligned Reed Sheppard starting, and playing 35 minutes, the Rockets held LA to 93 points, in a close out game on their home court. The first home closeout game Lebron James has lost since 2017, in fact.
The starting Rockets played most of the game. Amen played 46 minutes. Jabari and Sengun played 42 minutes. Tari Eason played 31 (due mostly to some silly fouls), while Sheppard played 35. Los Angeles was much the same story, with James playing 39 minutes (two under his age), Hachimura 37, Ayton 38, Smart 37, Reaves, on his second game back, 35, and Kennard 31.
I have to believe these numbers work in favor of the Rockets as this series winds on. They are simply much younger than the Lakers overall. In fact this was either the youngest, or second youngest playoff starting lineup in NBA history. In a longer series, with the 41 year old LeBron James being, once again, far and away the Lakers best player, those minutes start to toll in a way they probably won’t on the Rockets.
In some ways in this series, the Rockets have been saved by Kevin Durant’s injury. This is not some slam on Durant. It’s simply this: Ime Udoka is so stubborn about how he uses Durant, the Rockets are incredibly easy to defend. A team not known for defense, the Lakers, can force Durant into 9 grisly turnovers, in the one game he played. With the Rockets lineup of Sheppard, Thompson, Eason, Smith and Sengun, the Rockets are far harder to defend with the tactics the Lakers used against Durant. The Rockets, despite not showing it in game one, create a defensive burden on individual Laker defenders. LA seems to have a better chance junking the game up and swarming the obvious, and inevitable, KD initiation of offense. The Rockets only had 10 turnovers, of which five were steals. Sengun and Thompson were doubled quickly, and turned over 8 times to their 12 assists, but Sheppard, Smith, Eason, and Holiday combined for 12 assists to 1 turnover, as the pressure was elsewhere.
The Rockets don’t suddenly have a great offense, but they do have a far more balanced one. The proof of this was in the scoring Smith – 22, Eason -18, Sengun 14, Thompson 15, Sheppard – 12. None of that is exactly pinball machine stuff, but it puts weaker defenders like Kennard, Reaves, and (much of the time) James in a difficult position. 99 points probably won’t get it done going forward (even Orlando and Detroit scored 225 collectively) but it might get it done against the Lakers two more times.
The series now shifts back to Houston, and hopefully the Rockets come out with the same fire.
History awaits. (We hope.)
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