The Lakers (53-29) and the Rockets (52-30) are officially set to face off in the playoffs this season after ending up in the fourth and fifth seeds in the West, respectively, to end the regular season. The Rockets will now be visiting Los Angeles on Saturday, April 18, for Game 1 of the first-round series against the Lakers, who have home-court advantage.
The respective head coaches, JJ Redick and Ime Udoka, spoke to the media after their respective franchise’s regular season-finale. Redick kept it a bit more concise, while Udoka had a more detailed response.
“We have tried for the last six weeks to build towards the playoffs, both in our mentality with our habits, all that stuff. We knew the reality, whether we got three, four, five, six, whatever it was, there’s no easy matchup. There are all those teams, you know, slotted there are tough teams. Whether it was going to end up being, you know, Denver, Minnesota, or Houston,” said Redick after the Lakers’ 131-107 win over the Jazz.
“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 the series.”
“I mean, and that’s, you know, going into today, we told the team like it was, 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, great physical shape over the next four or five days, and be ready to play,” concluded Redick.
The Lakers won the last two matchups against the Rockets after losing to them on Christmas to end up winning the regular season series 2-1. While the Lakers were at full strength at the time, they will be without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for probably the entire series, and this puts a lot of pressure on LeBron James’ shoulders.
Ime Udoka recognized this situation and addressed it in detail in his remarks about facing the Lakers. He spoke to the media after the Rockets beat the Grizzlies 132-101.
“As I said even 15 games ago, we really wanted to focus on ourselves and how we play, regardless of the seedings, how close it is, and how tough it is to pick an opponent,” said Udoka.
“But for us, obviously, it is fresh that we lost two games to them recently, but we have kind of flipped the switch since then. Had a really good game against them on Christmas.”
“I obviously know they are injured, but quality players across the board, you saw that with Minnesota, they had guys out and whatnot, but whatever the case may be, it is still the NBA. They have some really great players there, and we’ll have our hands full,” Udoka further added in his initial remarks.
Subsequently, a reporter asked him if the Rockets are better equipped now to handle the double-team pressure on Kevin Durant that arguably cost them the two games against the Lakers.
“I think we’re better at our spacing and not turning the ball over, that’s where a majority of the problems came from. Not even being able to get the complete pass out of him.”
“But we’ve seen it before a couple of times; our numbers show we are really good against the double-teams, but they really hurt us in the fourth quarter at times. So it seems like if we pick it apart, early teams don’t do it as much, but when they have success with it, then they do it more in the fourth.”
“And that was the big part, it was the turnovers or not making the right reads. We’ve been up and down at times this year, but now we’ve practiced enough and seen enough that it is something that we know we’ll see again,” Udoka said.
Furthermore, another reporter asked Udoka what he thought about facing LeBron James, potentially in the point guard role in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves’ absence.
“So, it’s just one guy you can key in on a little bit more than obviously when they have Doncic or Reaves, or you know, whatever the situation is going to be there. And so, yeah, we know a lot is on his shoulders and, obviously, we’ll throw multiple bodies and different looks at him. But, yeah, he’s obviously playing a high level for them with the injuries they’ve had, and we understand that’s going to be the case going forward,” concluded Udoka.
Therefore, while all eyes from the Lakers will likely be on stopping Kevin Durant, the same would probably apply for the Rockets on LeBron James. Unfortunately for James, Durant has a lot more help available to him than James does. Thus, it would be a much steeper hill for James to climb on, carrying the Lakers’ offensive load at age 41.
Do you think the Rockets will be able to stop LeBron James and the shorthanded Lakers in the playoffs? Or does he still have it in him to will the Lakers to the second round almost single-handedly? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
