We have the Eastern Conference Finals all set with the Celtics ready to take on the Miami Heat with Game 1 coming on Tuesday. The Western Conference still has some work to do after the Clippers collapsed on Friday. Per Inpredictable, the Clippers had a 96.5% chance to win with 50 seconds left in the second quarter, but we’ll have to watch Game 6 at 1:00 pm on Sunday when there are nine other NFL Week 1 games. Let’s see if the Lakers can lock it up to prevent Game 6 going on during the two Monday Night Football games.
Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers (-6.5), 8:00 pm ET
Team Totals: Rockets 104.3, Lakers 110.8
Injury News: LeBron James (groin) and Anthony Davis (rib) and JaVale McGee (ankle) are probable, Danuel House (sex, for multiple hours… allegedly) remains out, and Dion Waiters (groin) is doubtful.
Rockets Expected Starters: Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Eric Gordon, Robert Covington, P.J. Tucker
Lakers Expected Starters: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Markieff Morris
Rockets Rotation Notes: Austin Rivers played the final 18, Jeff Green closed.
Lakers Rotation Notes: Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo and KCP closed with LeBron and AD, the Lakers didn’t play any bigs, Markieff Morris had some foul trouble.
D’Antoni Quotes: He said the team had “a lack of spirit” in Game 4. He said he’ll have to be ready for LeBron and the Lakers “dive-bombing the guy in the middle.” He said he liked how the plan worked in the fourth as the team made a comeback, and they know that formula could beat the Lakers. He talked about the fourth-quarter lineup (more below), he said he was glad to see Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore “give us a boost.” He said it’ll be up to other guys to score when Harden is getting doubled. He wasn’t concerned about the lack of treys because of the Lakers’ defense limiting them, and he said the Rockets can look for more layups, drawing fouls, kicking it back out to open guys up, and playing faster.
Vogel Quotes: He has talked about Houston’s “firepower” on offense multiple times (like, it’s a lot). He said the rest of the guys after LeBron and AD don’t get enough credit, and he mentioned Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso and Talen Horton-Tucker by name. He said he wanted to give THT a chance because he continues to prove he deserves it.
*Game 4 was just total domination on the glass for the Lakers, allowing just one offensive rebound to the Lakers’ 12 O boards. The Lakers doubled them up in the rebounding department at 52-26. D’Antoni said he wasn’t concerned about the lack of size, and he’s fine with AD just getting rebounds over guys every once in a while.
*The Rockets continue to make it tough on LeBron James. Besides a couple transition buckets, he didn’t really get any great looks on drives with most of his shots in the paint either coming in traffic off an O board or while falling away from the basket. LeBron’s drives per game are pretty close to what they were in the Blazers series, but his true shooting attempts off drives are down 2.1 per game. LeBron also hasn’t shot it great with under 15 seconds left on the shot clock in this series, sitting at 19-of-47 (45.7 eFG%). Compare that to 72.2 eFG% in the Blazers series and 52.4 eFG% on the season. He’s not playing poorly, the Rockets just continue to play good defense against him.
*AD finally got into his comfort zone as a scorer. He had his series-high in percentage of points scored in these categories: free throws, points in the paint, points off turnovers, fastbreak points, and assisted buckets. He was at just 41.2% of his makes coming off assists in the first three, and got that all the way up to 70% in Game 4. He’s just too good.
*Harden continues to just feast at the free-throw line to help offset his down shooting games. He’s actually getting more wide-open looks from three in this series compared to the OKC one, and part of that is because Westbrook is helping him. The Lakers have no reason to change their coverage on Harden, so it’ll be another night where he has to step it up on dimes. Russell Westbrook should have another chance in front of him because of it. From a play standpoint, Westbrook is really hurting the Rockets, but from a fantasy perspective the chance is there.
*As mentioned above, Vogel talked up Caruso’s play and even grouped him with Playoff Rondo. He hit the 30-minute mark for the first time for his 16 points. He saw a whopping 18 second-half minutes after averaging just 11.5 in the previous four games.
*As mentioned above, D’Antoni said he can take a look at running more four-guard lineups, and “you can look for it for a little longer stretches.” That means we might see a little more run from Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore. The Rockets really can’t take out P.J. Tucker for too long (they were trailing and needed to on Thursday), so this could make Robert Covington a bit risky depending on the flow of the game.
Matchup Helps: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Austin Rivers
Matchup Hurts: James Harden, JaVale McGee, Dwight Howard
