LeBron James & Lakers must improve TWO KEY areas vs. Rockets even if Kevin Durant remains out

The Lakers margin for error, even if KD

doesn't come back, will be much smaller

in game two. And 41 offensive rebounds

and turnovers will get them beat. First,

looking at the turnover, some of the

turnovers are just going to happen. And

I don't see much of an adjustment for

like Luke Canard dribbling along the

baseline and kind of dribbling the ball

off of his foot or LeBron like trying to

do a spin move on I think it was on Tari

E and taking some contact and just kind

of losing the ball on the spin. That's

just kind of the reality of having to do

a lot of high volume ball handling

versus this athletic and physical of a

defense. I'm not too worried about that

specifically. Consider that just a

product of the environment. The illegal

screens, like the Lakers had two illegal

screen turnovers. Screening is just

vitally important in this matchup to try

to free up your stars, especially as

you're targeting guys like Reed Shepard

and Alper and Shangon that the Rockets

are going to try not to switch. Hey

guys, sorry to interrupt. If you've made

it this far, it would mean a lot to us

if you would just hit that subscribe

button really quick. I thought DeAndre

Eaton in particular set a lot of great

screens in that Saturday night game. I

used to say to my high school players

all the time, I I I haven't been

coaching since I moved up here to

Denver, but I coached high school

basketball up in uh uh in Tucson for

four years. And one of the things I used

to talk with them all the time is I I'd

rather have you set a lot of good

screens and pick up two, three, four

illegal screen calls during the game

then set shitty screens all night and

never pick up a single call. The you're

kind of dead on arrival if you can't get

your guys open in screening action. So

the illegal screen calls, not

particularly worried about that. I want

the Lakers setting physical screens to

try to get Luke Canard, LeBron, and

Marcus Smart open. There were two main

types of turnovers that I think they can

clean up. One, rushing post entries. Uh

Marcus Smart had one of these to LeBron.

Uh Bronny James had one of these to

LeBron after a two-man game on the right

wing. Ball pressure has a tendency to

speed you up and make you feel like

there's no time. But LeBron isn't going

to be able to catch the ball if he

doesn't actually have time to finish

fighting for position and get a good

seal before you make the post entry. So

turn your back, kind of like posting up

far away from the basket, protect the

basketball, wait for LeBron to be ready,

then use physicality to bump the

defender, make a pass fake, and get the

ball in. Those are avoidable turnovers

that are just about not rushing, not

getting sped up by the ball pressure.

And then turnovers in transition. This

is a a one that I think is really

fascinating. Last week in the Lakers

collective pod on Thursday, we had a

mailbag question that specifically asked

like, can the Lakers play in transition

against this Rockets team? And one of

the things I said in the Thursday pod

was like, I would be aggressive when you

have a really good opportunity. I don't

think you should just not run the run

the floor. Like if you have a clear

threeonone, a twoon-one, some sort of

clear advantage to try to get up the

floor and make a play in transition, you

should hunt those opportunities. But

what I specifically said on Thursday is

you are not going to be able to compete

with this team in the open floor

athletically. And I thought there were

like a halfozen turnovers in this game

where the Lakers were kind of like

trying to force transition opportunities

that weren't there and they'd either get

picked or they would struggle to finish

at the rim, they'd throw a lob that

wasn't there. And it's like, okay,

you're not going to be the Showtime

Lakers versus this Rockets team with the

way that your team is constructed

athletically. And so, I think a big part

of limiting their turnovers is going to

be just being more decisive about when

to push in transition versus when to

pull the ball out and run your half

court offense. JJ Reic was completely on

top of that in his postgame presser. He

seemed very aware of it. It's something

that I expect the Lakers to adjust as

they go in game two. But again, high

post entries and those transition

turnovers, those are the big ones that I

think the Lakers can clean up. The

offensive rebounds, the rebounding

actually got worse as the game went

along, which is to be expected. Like

Houston got more desperate and started

playing harder. The Lakers had a

double-digit lead for most of the second

half and their effort waned a little

bit. And that showed if you look at the

way that the offensive rebounds kind of

went through the game. Like the Rockets

only had seven offensive rebounds in the

first half. That's a good number given

the advantage that Houston has and the

sheer amount of shots that they were

missing. They allowed seven in the third

quarter and seven in the fourth quarter.

So again, twice as many offensive

rebounds allowed in the second half as

you saw in the first half. And that

showed in the film like most of the

offensive rebounds in the first half

were kind of just a product of the

reality of Houston's athleticism

advantage. guys getting shoved

underneath the rim, guys getting beat

vertically even though guys were jumping

and trying to compete for those 50/50

balls. Like there were a couple that I

thought they could get cleaned up. Like

Jake Lavy had a possession where he was

ball watching Shangon on a post up and

let Jon Tate cut behind him and he had a

tap out offensive rebound. Marcus Smart

had one late in the first half where he

was kind of jogging back in transition

and Reed Shepard was in front of him and

there was a tap out rebound that went to

Reed that Marcus could have gotten if he

just kind of was more engaged. But

again, those are the only two that I can

think of in the first half. The effort

was overall pretty solid. In the second

half, that effort and execution slipped.

A lot of standing around when shots went

up. Ruy was the big guy that stood out

to me in that regard. And big part of

why he only had two rebounds. Ruy's got

to be more active on the defensive

glass. He just kind of stands around and

stares while other guys are going after

the basketball. Especially with him

being in a lower usage role. Like there

were some possessions in the second half

where you'd see Marcus Smart kind of

ball watching or Luke Canard ball

watching or LeBron ball watching. And

that's not to excuse those guys. They

need to do better, but they also are the

dudes that are creating the vast

majority of the shots on the other end

and have more offensive responsibility.

Ruie is occasionally putting the ball on

the floor and attacking a matchup and

obviously does need to do some scoring,

but he has lighter offensive

responsibility. he is more physically

equipped both in terms of the amount of

reserves and energy that he has and in

his natural athleticism as a as a

younger, bigger, more athletic player to

be more impactful in that department. So

like a lot of standing around just in

that second half where I think there was

some opportunities to clean some of that

up and then the end of the game I'll cut

them slack. As a matter of fact, like

all seven of Houston's offensive

rebounds in the fourth quarter came in

the final five minutes after the Lakers

gone up 16. So overall, I thought the

numbers on the offensive rebounds were

more in line with what you would expect

in the matchup, just inflated by some

garbage time rebounding from Houston as

they were desperate. But again, the

margins will be smaller. So like, let's