Lakers getting back up to speed
After long layoff, LeBron says Game 1 gave his team a feel for the up-tempo pace, small-ball style Houston features
The Los Angeles Lakers said they studied it, they dissected it, they discussed it. In the days leading to Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, however, the Lakers said they simply could not simulate the small-ball Rockets’ quickness.
“It’s speed. They play with a lot of speed,” Lakers star LeBron James said. “Starting with the head of the snake in Russ (Westbrook).”
The Rockets dashed past the Lakers 112-97 on Friday night in the series opener in the NBA bubble near Orlando, Fla., after having won a cliffhanger of a Game 7 by two points over the Oklahoma City Thunder two days prior. The Lakers had not played since painlessly beating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games on Aug. 29 in the opening round.
“You can show it to ’em all you want on tape, you can talk about it, the answers were given to the tests going into it,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of his squad prepping for the Rockets’ approach. “Even though you know something is coming, when it happens with speed and in a … setting like this, sometimes it takes a little while to get used to that speed.”
The Pocket Rockets’ scheme usually means more overall swiftness than most of the NBA’s 30 teams, a component the Rockets try and emphasize throughout a game’s 48 minutes, and James explained that does not simply mean the Rockets run fast.
“You understand it’s not about just the legs moving, it’s about the hand movement as well. They’re great with their hands,” said
James, who scored 20 points in Game 1, five points below his regular-season average. “You understand that if you have a turnover, you can’t relax, you’ve got to get back (with a) quick twitch because they’re extremely fast, especially when Russ gets it. You adjust to that by playing against it.”
James turned to an example from the turn of the century — one in a different sport — to illustrate his point.
“In the early 2000s, the St. Louis Rams were the ‘Greatest Show on Turf,’ ” James said of the highscoring offense directed by quarterback Kurt Warner. “People always said you scout ’em, you scout ’em, you scout ’em, but until they got out on the field and saw Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Marshall Faulk and Az-Zahir Hakim and those guys, it was, ‘OK, we need to play them again.’
“Because there’s no way you can simulate that speed, and getting out on the floor and having a Game 1 (gave us) a good feel for it.”
The Lakers can back up their “getting a feel” for a series tactic with evidence: They dropped Game 1 against the Trail Blazers before winning the final four contests by an average of 15 points. The Rockets and Lakers play
Game 2 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday from the bubble.
“Controlling the controllables is the most important thing,” Lakers forward Markieff Morris said. “We’ve just got to want it more, we’ve got to come with that same energy we came with after playing the Blazers in Game 1. They beat us in Game 1, and we used that as motivation throughout the rest of the series.”
Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, while admitting he wasn’t overly familiar with the “Greatest Show on Turf,” said he appreciated the accolade from James. Then D’Antoni added a caveat that should catch the Lakers’ attention.
“We didn’t play very fast (Friday) night, to be totally honest,” D’Antoni said. “Defensively we did, we were flying around, but offensively we can up our speed a lot more, and we’ll need to do that. We take the compliment, and that’s great, but ( James) will be coming at us like a freight train (Sunday), and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to roll.”
Lakers guard Alex Caruso, a former Texas A&M star, said his team must up its oomph if it is to advance to the conference finals.
“We were a little off rhythm,” Caruso said of Game 1. “I don’t think we played as hard as we could. That falls on nobody’s shoulders but our own, the five guys who are out there and everybody else that’s around them. (The Rockets) coming off a Game 7, they had the energy and sense of urgency I think we were lacking a little bit at times … coming off that break.
“It kind of had the same feel as Portland Game 1, we were kind of in it, but we weren’t really ourselves.”
The Lakers had the best record in the West this season at 52-19 and started the conference semifinals as heavy favorites over the fourthseeded Rockets, who were 44-28. Those odds lightened after the first game, but the Lakers vow they’re now conditioned for the frenetic Rockets’ pace.
“You can see it on film, but until you get out there and get a feel for it … that’s what we did (Friday) — we got a feel for their speed,” James said. “We should be fully aware of that going into Game 2.”