They know the playoff opponent and how difficult that assignment will be for this group of Lakers when they open the postseason against the physical and rugged Houston Rockets.
They know they will be without two of their main cogs in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves when Game 1 kicks off Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena and they know this group of Lakers will have to dig deeper than any time this season in this best-of-seven series.
They finished the 82-game regular season on a three-game winning streak that gave the Lakers the fourth seed in the Western Conference after their 131-107 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday at home.
And it gave the Lakers a date with the fifth-seeded Rockets.
“Again, we have tried for the last six weeks to build towards the playoffs, both in our mentality, with our habits, all that stuff,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “We knew the reality, whether we got 3, 4, 5, 6, whatever it was, there’s no easy matchup. All those teams slotted there are tough teams, whether it was going to end up being Denver, Minnesota or Houston.
“Houston’s obviously a really, really good basketball team, and we’re going to prepare, and we’re going to fight and we’re going to go try to win a series….Going into today, we told the team, it’s not about the opponent, it’s about us, and now it is about the opponent. And we’re going to do everything we can to get our guys in a great frame of mind, in a great physical shape over the next four or five days and be ready to play.”
Marcus Smart attempts a reverse layup against the Utah Jazz on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Lakers won the season series over the Rockets, 2-1, winning the last two games in a row in Houston last month. But that was when the Lakers were on a roll towards a 15-2 month of March and when Doncic and Reaves were playing.
But Doncic (Grade 2 left hamstring strain) and Reaves (Grade 2 left oblique muscle strain) were injured five games ago at Oklahoma, haven’t played since and aren’t expected to play in the first round of the playoffs.
Doncic leads the NBA in scoring (33.5 points per game) and is third in assists (8.3) and is second on the Lakers in rebounding (7.7). Reaves is second on the Lakers in scoring (23.3) and third in assists (5.5).
That’s what the Lakers will be missing in the postseason and that’s what they missed while going 3-2 with Doncic and Reaves out since the Thunder game.
Lakers guard Nick Smith Jr. drives to the basket against the Utah Jazz on Sunday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“God, it’s been a week. It feels like it’s been two months. But the last week going into the Dallas game when we got the news about Luka and then the news about AR, I think the two words are spirit and health. Spirit and health,” Redick said. “This team needs great spirit and we need our remaining guys to be healthy. And that was our focus the last week.
“It’s gonna be our focus this week. Building our capacity physically, making sure we don’t do too much, making sure we don’t do too little, making sure we get through the week healthy. And then the spirit, again, creating that belief. I think we’ve done that with this group over these last few games and we’ve gotta continue that going into Game 1. “
The Lakers will have their hands full with a Rockets team that grinds on defense and plays a physical brand of basketball.
The Rockets ended the season ranked fourth in points allowed (110.0), sixth in field-goal percentage defense (46.0) and sixth in three-point defense (35.1).
They are ranked first in rebounding, claiming 48.1 per game, and first in offensive rebounds, grabbing 15.0 per game.
They have two All-Stars in Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun.
After LeBron James (18 points), Deandre Ayton (22 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks) and Rui Hachimura (22 points, 10 rebounds), helped demolish the Jazz, Marcus Smart, who had 10 assists, was asked what are the top things the Lakers will deal with when it comes to the Rockets.
“KD and Sengun. We know that for sure,” Smart said. “Those are the two heads of the snake and then obviously making sure we keep those guys under control. Can’t let those other players get off as well. We got to be able to maintain them as well. But the focus is those two guys and just going out there and making it as tough as possible for them.”
The Lakers signed guard Nick Smith Jr. to a standard NBA contract, the team announced Sunday. Smith played in 29 games for the Lakers before Sunday, averaging 6.0 points and 1.0 assists in 12.3 minutes per game. Smith had 12 points against the Jazz.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
