Tucker’s value shines through
With the Rockets’ offense bogging down again, with 3pointers clanging and frustrations rising, coach Mike D’Antoni did what he usually does in such situations. He went small.
The Thunder saw the 6-5 P.J. Tucker defending their 7foot, 265-pound brute Steven Adams and immediately went inside. Adams missed a jump hook in the lane. Tucker followed with a 3-pointer with Adams rushing to the corner too late to even distract him.
Suddenly, the Rockets’ offense took off in its best stretch of the season’s first three games.
“I would imagine if he didn’t do what he did, we would’ve probably lost,” D’Antoni said. “It’s more than just that, but P.J. is playing. Because he can go small and spread the floor and get the big guys away, if we can do that more often — getting rebounds, having Russell (Westbrook) just push and spread it out — that could be a big weapon for us.
“It’s a little bit of a feel and read and see how we’re going.”
There is little new about the Rockets’ success in their Tuckwagon lineups. But it has been different early in the season.
The Rockets often become less reliant on their 3point shooting when filling the court with more 3-point shooters. The spacing that comes from playing with five players on the perimeter creates more openings for James Harden and now Westbrook to drive. With Harden misfiring from deep, the room to attack and draw fouls has been especially valuable.
Yet, rather than accept shrinking the defense to get the scoring going, the Rockets have defended better when their center stands eye-to-chest with his opponent this season.
Defensively, the Rockets have allowed an average of 104 points per 100 possessions when Tucker is on the floor; a whopping 122.4 points per 100 possessions when he has been on the bench.
“It doesn’t mean it will always be that way,” D’Antoni said. “It’s working pretty good. And we have Russ this year, who can rebound over the top of people. It kind of negates the problem of rebounding.”
In addition to having Westbrook hit the boards, the small lineups allow Harden to match up with big men where he is more effective than when on quick guards, with Danuel House Jr. playing well against smaller players. That still requires Tucker to be the center, calling
out defenses in the communication he cites so regularly as the key to the Rockets’ defense.
“I’m always paying attention to the flow of the game, what we need, who they have out there,” Tucker said. “Instincts kind of take over because then I’m kind of the floor general on defense. It’s always on me. That’s the real time when it really is.”
The decision to go small also has been aided by the best scoring run of Tucker’s career. When he banked in a
corner 3 in the last minute on Monday to finish with 17 points and secure the Rockets’ win, he has scored at least 15 points in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.
Much of that, including Monday’s game-winner, has been off Westbrook’s driveand-kick passing to the point D’Antoni said Tucker “probably needs to take him out to dinner.”
“I just get to the corner and space the floor, but he’s so dynamic and he’s so good at making plays, he definitely makes it easier,” Tucker said. “He’s making me have a good start on my season. He’s such a good passer. He’s always on time. You always have to be ready, because he’ll throw it at any time.”
Tucker has made 12 of 18 3-pointers this season, becoming the third player in NBA history to make at least 66.7 percent of his 3s in the first three games of the season with at least that many attempts. He has done it while the rest of the Rockets are making 22.9 percent of their 3s.
“We just weren’t making a lot of 3s,” D’Antoni said of the move to the small lineup. “Trying to get the guy who is making the 3s in the right position to make sure he’s open.”
The Bucks did close out their season-opening win by going to 7-footer Brook Lopez inside, with D’Antoni saying he never considered returning Clint Capela to the floor. But of the Rockets’ five most-effective lineups this season, four have had Tucker at center.
The sample size is exceedingly small, not only because there have been just three games played. Those lineups have been together only briefly in each game. But regardless of lineup, the Rockets have been by far their best with Tucker on the floor, playing better offensively when he plays and falling apart defensively when he sits.
The Rockets have been 46.4 points per 100 possessions better with Tucker playing than when he is on the bench.
“He’s just playing well,” D’Antoni said. “He’s the only guy making a shot. P.J. has always been super important to what we do. Even if he doesn’t make a shot, he’s really important. You add on top him shooting the ball the way he is, there’s no surprise to me the stats are crazy with him on the floor.”