David Williams
The Houston Rockets were able to edge the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of their Western Conference quarterfinal round, and so now we have our West semifinalists: the Rockets now face the Los Angeles Lakers, while the Los Angeles Clippers take on the Denver Nuggets, who needed seven games to escape the Utah Jazz. The Lakers lost their opener to Portland but then swept the next four games to eliminate a Trail Blazers team that was missing Damian Lillard, while the Clippers needed six games to knock out a pesky Dallas team.
Clippers vs Nuggets Breakdown
The Clippers looked shaky in the first four games against Dallas, splitting those games with the Mavericks, but then they shifted up a gear in Games 5 and 6, and the Mavericks (missing Kristaps Porzingis) had no answer. Kawhi Leonard put the offense on his back during crucial parts of the third and fourth quarter of Game 6 against Dallas, and Paul George found his jump shot starting in Game 5 and nailed more crucial shots in Game 6. Patrick Beverley, who provided lockdown defense before going down to injury, should return and will guard Jamal Murray.
The Nuggets got 57.9 points per game from Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic — but they had to fight back from a 3-1 deficit against Utah to win the last three games and move on. Murray is filling up the basket at an historic level in these playoffs, but he won’t find as many open looks with Beverley all over him. The Nuggets, much like Dallas, look like a team that is young and filled with promise, but also are a player or two away from moving into the top tier of league contenders. One thing that will help Denver is that Jokic won’t have Rudy Gobert waiting for him in the paint every possession. So he should be able to score more, compensating to some degree for the production that Murray will likely lose with Beverley draped on him. Even so, coming out of that seven-game series to face a rested Clippers team will be a tall order.
Rockets vs Lakers Breakdown
The Lakers looked like they were in trouble during the eight “bubble” games ahead of the playoffs, and then they dropped that opener against Portland. Then they remembered that they were the top seed, and they were able to dominate inside against the Trail Blazers, with Anthony Davis having basically no one to counter him in the middle (and Jusuf Nurkic doesn’t count against that kind of power). Once Damian Lillard went down, the Trail Blazers didn’t have enough scorers to counter. If you go back to March and look at the blueprint that they used to beat the Milwaukee Bucks, they will incorporate a physical style when they face teams that have a more finesse approach — and the Rockets certainly qualify.
The Rockets almost lost to Oklahoma City, as the Thunder were able to capitalize on the problems that come when your commitment to small ball doesn’t leave anyone on the roster who can defend the rim. When the Golden State Warriors went small ball as a team, they still had Kevin Durant and Draymond Green to deliver rim defense and physicality when needed, even when the game got too fast for the likes of Andrew Bogut. When James Harden can’t find his jump shot, as happened in Game 7 against Oklahoma City, even with Russell Westbrook on the floor, things get really dicey for the Rockets. The Lakers are much stronger and deeper than the Thunder were, so we’re about to see “small ball” go out in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.
