The first game following the Rockets official shift to small their biggest test. The smallest team in the NBA was taking on the biggest team in a big man's sport. On February 6, two nights after trading Clint Capela for Robert Covington the Rockets beat the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center, but seven months after passing that first test, a bigger test remains.
"I think we're more secure in what we're doing and even more confident in how we play," Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni said Thursday, a day before the opening game of his team's Western Conference Semifinal series against those very same Lakers. "They are maybe the biggest team and the best team, they got the best record obviously, and so it will be a challenge but, we're very comfortable with doing (it)."
The Rockets are 2-1 against Los Angeles this season, having also beaten the West's number seed in a seeding game on August 6 in Orlando, but Russell Westbrook missed that game for Houston while LeBron James sat out for the Lakers. Anthony Davis was unavailable for the Lakers win at Toyota Center on January 15. Even had both squads been at full strength for those matchups, D'Antoni still believes nothing that happened up to this point means anything heading into a playoff series.
"I don't think three games we played, seems like a you know a century ago, really matter," he said. "Teams are in the state they're in today, we feel pretty good about it, I'm sure they do the same thing."
D'Antoni spoke around 15 hours after the Rockets eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder in a wild game seven Wednesday night, right before their only practice before the start of their second round series on Friday night. The Lakers, on the other hand, haven't played since dispatching the Portland Trail Blazers on August 29, but that isn't necessarily a disadvantage.
"We know that they've had rest all week," Rockets guard Eric Gordon said. "We played yesterday, so we should be in rhythm and focus on what we need to do. There's no excuse on rest time."
In beating Portland, the Lakers advanced to this stage for the first time since 2012, and preparing for them starts and ends with James, a four-time MVP and three-time champion.
"He does a little bit of everything," Gordon said. "He rebounds the ball, he's a main facilitator, and he definitely has to score. The one thing with him, you just don't want him to get everybody involved where they're knocking down shots and then towards the end of the game he has to be able to score. You just don't want him to take full control of the game."
Along with the walking matchup problem James poses, the Rockets have to deal with even taller and longer matchup issues. Three Lakers starters (James, Davis, and JaVale McGee) are taller than anyone the Rockets will put on the floor, as are top reserves Kyle Kuzma and Dwight Howard.
Houston held its own on the glass against Oklahoma City in the previous round, holding the Thunder to 25.3 offensive rebounding rate, but this series will introduce a whole new challenge. The Lakers rebounded 28.3 percent of their misses during the regular season, sixth most in the NBA, and against the Blazers, that number ticked up to 29.6 percent, which trails only Philadelphia in the post season. No one expects the Rockets to win the rebounding battle, but they can't get killed, which means they must play bigger than they actually are.
"I've been guarding bigger players my entire life, since I was in middle school" Rockets center P.J. Tucker said with a chuckle. "When you're a little kid you play against a grown man. That's something you do always. That's basketball, man. It's not like you got to sit down and train and call the weight trainer and be like 'What do I gotta do to guard bigger guys?' No, It's being smart, it's using the size as an advantage."
Tucker grabbed close to eight rebounds a night in the Rockets seven game series against the Thunder after pulling down 6.6 boards per game in the regular season. That number will likely have to continue to rise against the Lakers, but that's not the only area where the six-foot, five-inch Tucker will have to play bigger than his frame. The giant Lakers will throw everything at him, but he knows how to combat that.
"I can get into people. If you're seven-feet, and I'm six-five I can get in your stomach, so you can't put the ball down and you can't back me down, so I'll make you take tough twos.
"People don't realize you can be tall, but there's a disadvantage to being tall too."
