Rockets-Lakers conference semifinals to put small ball to test.
L.A. series will expose or vindicate small ball
The Rockets gave themselves no safety net.
When they traded their center in February and immediately faced the size and length and power of the Lakers, they did not add someone who has to duck under doorways just in case it did not work.
They also did not make the move thinking specifically about a playoff series against the Western Conference front-runners, who practically wear Disneyland signs saying opponents have to be this tall to get on this ride.
Then they topped the Lakers on a nationally televised stage, with so much attention and doubt focused on the Rockets’ small-ball style that it was impossible not to at least consider how things would look should the teams meet again with much more at stake.
Nearly seven months to the day later, it has come to that.
The Rockets face the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals with P.J. Tucker looking Anthony Davis square in the chest and any one of a variety of defenders barely coming up to LeBron James’ chin. The Rockets’ speed vs. the Lakers’ strength, 3-pointers vs. paint points, and MVP guards vs. superstar forwards becomes the ultimate test of a daring move to chase a championship.
“I think we’re more secure in what we’re doing and even more confident in
how we play,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It’s still going to be hard. They are the biggest team and the best team and the best record (in the Western Conference), obviously. It will be a challenge. But we’re very confident in what we’re doing.”
The Rockets’ Feb. 6 win at Los Angeles was not the debut of the small-ball lineup. They had used it extensively for several seasons, even exclusively this season for weeks when Clint Capela was out. But it was a coming-out party, timed for the night of the trade deadline as Robert Covington joined them and the commitment to playing without a center was clear to be seen.
That win was so significant because it offered the most substantial evidence to the Rockets themselves that small ball could work.
“Any time you try something different, you have to believe in it, and this helps,” D’Antoni said in the Staples Center hallway after the Rockets’ 121-111 win. “This helps a lot. You come in here, and you get spanked, and they’re all little, and it’s all, ‘Ohhhhh, we can’t do this.’ So they’re fired up, and we’ll keep trying.”
D’Antoni and Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said that if they could not win a competition inside, they were determined to get the Lakers and other teams with more traditional lineups to move outside with them, believing Tucker, James Harden and Eric Gordon had the muscle to battle on the other end.
“I don’t believe we ever mentioned the (Lakers’) name specifically,” D’Antoni
said. “It’s more about us than anybody in the league. We wanted to play the best we could play, and then we’ll see how that stacks up.”
Without a true center, D’Antoni said, the need to spread the floor becomes even more crucial against the Lakers “without a doubt.”
The Lakers were by February the team to beat in the Western Conference, but the Rockets were having good success with Tucker at center and desperately wanted to add Covington’s disruptive defense and range shooting. So unlike in the seasons when the Rockets tried to build a roster to take down the Warriors, their move was more about themselves.
“I wish we were good enough to where we could say, ‘OK, we just focus on one team we have to beat,’ ” Morey said. “I don’t think we’ve proven that yet. Hopefully we will. It was really more about getting Covington, who we thought was a great player, a great fit. We also thought it really helped James and Russell (Westbrook) being the best they can be. And we thought we could construct a very strong defense with it.
“Playing this way we thought gave us the best chance.”
Tucker defending Davis no doubt will bring greater attention to the Rockets’ decision to play without a conventional center, even though they had Tucker match up with Davis for three years.
“I’ve been on Davis every time I played him since he first came into the league,” Tucker said. “It’s no different.”
In 10 minutes defending Davis, plus an additional 38.9 minutes of partial possessions against him, Tucker has held Davis to six points on 2-of-5 shooting with six turnovers.
“If you told me I’d be playing center this year for the Rockets three years ago, I’d have probably laughed at you,” Tucker said. “It happens. You keep moving. You figure it out.
“I’ve guarded bigger players my entire life. It’s not like I have to train, call the weight trainer and say, ‘What do I have to do to guard bigger guys?’ It’s just being smart, using size as an advantage. I can get into people. I can get into your stomach so you can’t put the ball down, can’t back me down, make you take tough 2s. I can stay in front of you. I can move my feet.”
In a way, the entire series can be thought of the same way, a test of whether the advantages the Rockets gave themselves can overcome the obvious strengths of the Lakers.
“There’s advantages and disadvantages,” D’Antoni said. “I think they know where our weakness will be. We’ve got to lessen that blow by the tenacity and fight and desire to get it done. They’ll know where our strengths are. We’ll see whose will and whose fight will win those battles.”