Bench players stepping up
Morris, Kuzma solid as Los Angeles adjusts to quick, small-ball style of play
Forward Markieff Morris said the Los Angeles Lakers sized up their opposition in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals and decided their best chance was to drop to eye level with the smaller Rockets.
“They’re small, scrappy guys,” Morris said. “You just have to scrap with them.”
The Lakers scrapped and scraped and ultimately withstood the Rockets’ best blows in the third quarter, tying the series at 1-1 with a 117-109 victory on Sunday night in the NBA bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Rockets won the series opener 112-97 on Friday night, which drew the Lakers’ undivided attention for Game 2.
Lakers guard Danny Green said he figured the franchise’s stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, would shine following a Game 1 loss, and the duo followed through with a combined 62 points and 21 rebounds on Sunday.
“I was more worried about our others taking care of business,” Green said.
The Lakers’ “others” handled their business how the Western Conference’s top seeded team should to avoid an 0-2 hole, as Morris and Kyle Kuzma came off the bench to make a combined 12-of-15 shots from the field.
Morris made four 3pointers in the final 3:17 of the first quarter, a surprising outburst that perhaps made the difference in the outcome.
“Markieff was spectacular off the bench, giving us that instant offense with just his grit,” James said. “We love having him on the floor.”
The Lakers led 67-51 at halftime, and the Rockets exerted much of their energy in a third quarter comeback — outscoring the Lakers 41-23 — before Los Angeles again found its footing in the closing quarter.
“We came out in the third quarter, and we gave up back to back-to-back 3s on straight breakdowns,” James said of the Rockets’ Eric Gordon making two 3pointers and P.J. Tucker adding another less than two minutes into the second half. “Once you allow a team like that to get going, it’s hard to reel them back in.
“We got an opportunity to catch our breath from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, and we were able to turn the ship and make the adjustments.”
Four of the Rockets’ five starters shot at least 50 percent from the field, but it didn’t matter as the Lakers seemed to wear down the
Rockets, who narrowly won Game 7 on Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, as the game pressed on.
James on Saturday compared the Rockets’ persistent speed over a game’s 48 minutes to the St. Louis Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” in the NFL from around the turn of the century and said the Lakers needed an opener to adjust accordingly. Mission accomplished.
“Sometimes you need one game to be able to understand the speed they play with, and I think we adjusted from Game 1 to Game 2,” James said. “They’re an extremely fast team. Everyone keeps talking about small ball, but their speed and activity defensively and offensively is something that can catch you off guard, like in a Game 1 situation. We got a feel for that.
“We understand how much … scrambling, how much running, how much pace, how physical the game is going to be against this team because they’re extremely good, no matter who is on the floor.”
Lakers first-year coach Frank Vogel concurred, and the Lakers also have recent proof on their side they might need a Game 1 to get an overall feel for an opponent before looking like the top team in the Western Conference.
They lost their first game of the postseason to the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers and then rebounded with four consecutive victories. Now, it’s a best-of-five series with the fourth-seeded Rockets the rest of the way, as the Lakers seek their first NBA title in a decade and the Rockets after their first in a quarter century.
“We adjusted,” Vogel said of catching up to the Pocket Rockets’ pace. “We showed film and talked about their speed and their scrambling. It took us a little while to make sure we were getting used to it … it takes a little time to get a feel for that. I thought we did a better job in this game than Game 1.”
As for getting down with the Rockets and scrapping, as Morris put it? James said the Lakers, whom he helped assemble, are constructed for adjustments on the fly.
“We built the team to be able to play in different ways,” he said. “To be able to play big vs. teams, to be able to play small, and to be able to play in between. We built that from the beginning, and we always had that in our toolbox.”
The series continues Tuesday night with Game 3 from the bubble.