WCSF: (1) Los Angeles Lakers vs (4) Houston Rockets, Part 1 | Series Tied 1-1

[BigBoss23]

LeBron on court -15
LeBron off court +0

= LeBron's teammates fault

So bench LeBron and the Lakers win.

Sounds legit.

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

[Braggins]

McGee was the only Laker with a positive +/- at +5 in 13 minutes.

[infinite11285]

It's not really that the Lakers haven't adjusted to it. They don't match up well against the Rockets line up at all. I don't care what adjustments they make.

If the Rockets are making their 3's and the Lakers cant match their 3 pt output the Lakers aren't winning this series. No if's and's or but's about it.

By "adjusted" I don't mean in-game or in-series adjustments. I mean wholesale philosophical adjustment. Thinking along the lines of when the run-and-shoot arrived in football and for a period of team, was unstoppable. It was a match-up nightmare for almost everyone until teams "adjusted" by having a different OVERALL approach to facing it.

That may be true for the league in general, but I don't think that's the case for this series. The Rockets are simply a bad match up and the true thing keeping them from really winning this series is that they can go cold from 3 pt any time. They live and die by the 3. The Lakers would either really need to clamp down or just hope the Rockets miss their open looks similar to the OKC series in game 4.

This is a very solid point. The Lakers can't shoot, whereas, the Rocket's success is predicated on hitting jumpers. To add to that, 3-point shooting will neutralize the Lakers size.

[BallerTalk]

Lmao at the midgets. Harden looks super slow tonight. Is he out of shape?

Never change buddy.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Lmao at the midgets. Harden looks super slow tonight. Is he out of shape?

Never change buddy.

Hey by mid-game I turned it around and was only insulting the Lakers. On top of that I complimented the Rockets for their defense in the playoffs . I just didn't like how the first couple minutes of the game the Rockets were getting bullied.

I told you guys mid game I just want utter chaos in the NBA. I want everything to be a cluster **** while the Clippers hopefully sneak a title lol. as the Joker said some people just want to watch the world burn :p

[infinite11285]

LeBron on court -15
LeBron off court +0

= LeBron's teammates fault

So bench LeBron and the Lakers win.

Sounds legit.

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

Or it could mean plus/minus is a terrible way to evaluate production. McGee was the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Is he the Lakers savings grace? LeBron averaged a triple-double in the first round. Is that considered unimpactful as well?

Plus/minus is often a cherry-picked stat.

[BigBoss23]

So bench LeBron and the Lakers win.

Sounds legit.

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

Or it could mean plus/minus is a terrible way to evaluate production. McGee was the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Is he the Lakers savings grace? LeBron averaged a triple-double in the first round. Is that considered unimpactful as well?

Plus/minus is often a cherry-picked stat.

Its not the be all end all stat absolutely.

Going for 0 pts in the fourth when your team needs scoring? Thats on lbj.

[ocelot17]

Read on Twitter

?s=21

[infinite11285]

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

Or it could mean plus/minus is a terrible way to evaluate production. McGee was the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Is he the Lakers savings grace? LeBron averaged a triple-double in the first round. Is that considered unimpactful as well?

Plus/minus is often a cherry-picked stat.

Its not the be all end all stat absolutely.

Going for 0 pts in the fourth when your team needs scoring? Thats on lbj.

You are absolutely right. That lineup Vogel trotted out to open the 4th resulted in a 14-0 run for the Rockets. The Lakers gave up after that. I think AD only had 2 points, and it was garbage time midway through the 4th. Everyone played bad. Kudos to the Rockets.

[Chessboxer]

Rooting for the Lakers in this series but the Rockets deserved the W. They played harder and tougher and the Lakers looked sloppy, and complacent. A lot of people said AD would feast on the Rockets front line, but I didn't believe it and it played out how I thought it would. AD is a finesse player and the Rockets, especially Tucker are very physical. AD looked spectacular against the soft Blazers but the Rockets are a different animal.

Lebron needed to be more aggressive. He could bully the Rockets to the basket whenever he wanted, but for some reason kept settling for 3's. Frustrating to watch

[California Gold]

By "adjusted" I don't mean in-game or in-series adjustments. I mean wholesale philosophical adjustment. Thinking along the lines of when the run-and-shoot arrived in football and for a period of team, was unstoppable. It was a match-up nightmare for almost everyone until teams "adjusted" by having a different OVERALL approach to facing it.

That may be true for the league in general, but I don't think that's the case for this series. The Rockets are simply a bad match up and the true thing keeping them from really winning this series is that they can go cold from 3 pt any time. They live and die by the 3. The Lakers would either really need to clamp down or just hope the Rockets miss their open looks similar to the OKC series in game 4.

I actually think you are saying the same thing I am. Because I agree. I'm saying that the league has not adjusted to this unique approach by having a roster than is better equipped to combat it. So, I don't think there is an "adjustment" the Lakers can make during this series that fixes those issues. I'm saying that if small-ball proves successful, teams will be adjusting for it by changing the way their roster is constructed.

Ah I see. Yeah I agree with that. I do think though that even if the Rockets were to get past this series that the Clippers do match up decently with them because of all the wings they have. Them and the Celtics when healthy have the Wings defensively to throw at all the guys on this small ball rotation.

[FreeThrowLine]

No way the Rockets win another game this series

[BigBoss23]

Rooting for the Lakers in this series but the Rockets deserved the W. They played harder and tougher and the Lakers looked sloppy, and complacent. A lot of people said AD would feast on the Rockets front line, but I didn't believe it and it played out how I thought it would. AD is a finesse player and the Rockets, especially Tucker are very physical. AD looked spectacular against the soft Blazers but the Rockets are a different animal.

Lebron needed to be more aggressive. He could bully the Rockets to the basket whenever he wanted, but for some reason kept settling for 3's. Frustrating to watch

Rockets have a lot of guys that are difficult to post up on because theyre wide physical players. Tucker can match lbj in physicality.

[LarsV8]

Nice win for the good guys!

[Braggins]

The core rotation for the Lakers in this series should be Lebron/Green/KCP/AD/McGee + Caruso/Kuzma/Morris.

Rondo should get a few minutes at most to help keep guys fresh, but I'm not even sure hes a better option than Waiters.

Howard can also maybe get a few minutes if needed to help with rest, but McGee should probably get all of the minutes at center when they aren't going smaller with AD or Lebron at center.

Caruso/Green/KCP/Kuzma all need to play around 30 minutes. Lebron and AD will need to play around 40. Then around 20 for McGee and Morris.

[Air Apparent]

lol at lebron

[reignfire]

I'm one of the 8 people that said rockets in 7 FYI

Edit:

Lakers can play big, but they need to play at a super slow pace and force Harden to ISO all game. Then go at him on defense.

[whatisacenter]

So bench LeBron and the Lakers win.

Sounds legit.

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

Or it could mean plus/minus is a terrible way to evaluate production. McGee was the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Is he the Lakers savings grace? LeBron averaged a triple-double in the first round. Is that considered unimpactful as well?

Plus/minus is often a cherry-picked stat.

I agree with single game +- but watching the fourth quarter LeBron didn't do anything to make an impact at all. That being said, I had the Lakers in 5 and I still think they win the series but in 6 or 7 games.

[Alkaholic]

No way the Rockets win another game this series

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Come on man get out of here with that.
Lakers got dominated what else can they do go small?
Their bigs are a negative on the court.
Besides AD and LeBron the rest of the team are a bunch of scrubs compared to the Rockets they are deep

[Dupp]

So bench LeBron and the Lakers win.

Sounds legit.

It means hes not nearly as impactful as hes given credit for, at least this iteration.

Rockets will live with Davis and Lebron dropping 60-70 pts on 2s, while the Rockets have the clear and signifcant edge in support players (Gordon, Tucker, Covington etc).

Lakers will need Houston to

1. Go cold from 3 (laker perimeter d likely wont be good enough)
2. Get outrebounded

Im betting that wont happen. Rockets advance.

Or it could mean plus/minus is a terrible way to evaluate production. McGee was the only starter with a positive plus/minus. Is he the Lakers savings grace? LeBron averaged a triple-double in the first round. Is that considered unimpactful as well?

Plus/minus is often a cherry-picked stat.

What it really means is he didn’t have a great game and he also played way too many minutes with rondo which isn’t putting anyone in the position to succeed