We’re down to a one-game slate for today, and the day started off with some interesting news on why Danuel House isn’t available. Per Chris Haynes of Yahoo!, House “is under investigation by the league for allegedly allowing a female COVID-19 testing official into his hotel room, and his status for the remainder of the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers is in question.” As our guy Adam Levitan would say, House is on #TeamSex.
It’s also the NFL kickoff, so it’s probably going to be some light action in the NBA DFS streets.
Los Angeles Lakers (-5) vs. Houston Rockets, 9:00 pm ET
Team Totals: Lakers 112, Rockets 107
Injury News: Danuel House (personal) is out, Robert Covington (head) is questionable but is fully expected to play, JaVale McGee (ankle) is probable, Anthony Davis (finger) is probable, LeBron James (groin) is probable and Dion Waiters (groin) is doubtful.
Lakers Expected Starters: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, JaVale McGee
Rockets Expected Starters: Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Eric Gordon, Robert Covington, P.J. Tucker
Lakers Rotation Notes: No JaVale in 2Q-4Q, Dwight Howard was a DNP-CD again, Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma played the final 15 minutes.
Rockets Rotation Notes: Jeff Green took on many of Danuel House‘s minutes at 35.1 (19 in second half), almost a seven-man rotation in the second half with 2.6 minutes of Ben McLemore (6.9 for Rivers).
Vogel Quotes: Vogel said Rondo worked so hard once he showed up in the bubble that he got hurt (back). Vogel said he’s trying to minimize Harden and back-side treys with defensive scheme. He said he can use different role players situationally from half to half and game to game. He said his centers have to stay ready (suggesting he’ll be cutting his bigs’ minutes again). He talked up Rondo’s communication on defense.
D’Antoni Quotes: He said Westbrook “played well” with much better decision-making. He thought the Rockets’ “legs got a little tired” with too many losses on 50-50 balls.
*The Rockets actually did a pretty decent job of taking away LeBron from getting downhill on them, but instead LeBron found other ways to get great scoring opportunities. He only had six points off his 14 drives in Game 3, but he maximized his five paint touches to up his shot quality (only 2.0 paint touches per game in other playoff games). LeBron went off because he really thrived on the shots the Rockets wanted him to take, putting up a 66.7 eFG% on 12 jumpers and going 10-of-16 on uncontested shots overall in the win. He also had just five dimes off his 13 potential assists, so the table is set for another great game.
*Like LeBron, the Rockets did a decent job at taking easy buckets away from Anthony Davis. He doesn’t have any fast-break points in the last two games, and they’ve continued to cut down his assisted buckets in every game during this series. AD maximized his chances on great shots going 6-of-6 at the rim with three put-back shots, and two alley-oop jams. He was able to get to the line more with 11 attempts to help him, too. Credit to Houston here, but AD is just too good.
*Gotta credit Russell Westbrook for cutting out his bad shots, and he even assisted James Harden twice (six shots off 11 Westbrook passes, too) with six dimes off 12 potential assists. Westbrook’s drives in Game 3 were actually a tick down from the first two games and he’s struggled to convert on those in the series at 38.1 FG% on 21 attempts, but he’s had modest improvement over the three games. Westbrook was also at just 4-of-6 on contested shots and 9-of-18 on uncontested ones. Westbrook crushed the Lakers in the regular season because of their focus on Harden and originally I had thought he could benefit here. It might finally be happening after his 30/8/6 line.
*The Lakers have been outstanding in limiting Harden on drives, keeping him at 13-of-25 from the field (52%) with 11 free-throw makes in the three games. In the OKC series, he made 69.4% of his shots off drives with a tick more volume at the line off his drives, too. It should be tough on Harden throughout this series, but he’s still James Harden. He is getting more shots off drives per game compared to the OKC series. Basically, this shows how Luguentz Dort was staying in front of Harden to cut down volume, but the L.A. defense has cut down his efficiency.
*Rajon Rondo has been great. The Lakers have scored 54 points off 34 shots from Rondo passes (H/T data viz gawd Kirk Goldsberry). He’ll continue to find minutes, especially in this series. Anthony Davis pretty much summed it up. “It’s real,” Anthony Davis said. “Playoff Rondo is real.”
*As mentioned above, P.J. Tucker has done a really great job on defense. His on/off splits are insane in this series with the Rockets putting up a +13.1 net rating in 108 minutes with him on the court, but they’re at -42.3 in the 36 minutes he’s off the court. There’s really nothing you can do with this info because we know Tucker is going to be out there as much as he can. He’s been the Rockets’ best player.
*Robert Covington was cleared and he should be a full go. He’ll be busy.
Matchup Helps: LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Rajon Rondo, Danny Green, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green
Matchup Hurts: James Harden (tough matchup, but could still go off because he’s James Harden), Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee
