The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing better basketball lately but that was put to the test on Sunday night when they traveled to take on the Houston Rockets, one of the best teams in the West.
Early on the Rockets appeared to be too much for the Lakers as they were dominating the offensive glass to take a 22-point lead. L.A. fought all the way back and made it close before ultimately coming up short and losing, 119-115.
When assessing where the game was lose, Lakers head coach JJ Redick pointed to their struggles on the defensive glass, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We made some shots. Our inability to get defensive rebounds was the difference in the game.”
The Lakers gave up 18 offensive rebounds in the game, which made it tough to defend as Houston was getting multiple looks on many possessions. Steven Adams and Amen Thompson were a huge issue as they combined for 13 offensive rebounds, which Redick echoed was the difference:
“I think a little bit of it is will. Adams is a guy I played with and I know he’s like a tree down there once he gets positioned. It’s hard. I thought certainly Jalen Green’s shotmaking was huge for them but Thompson just killed us all night whether that was in transition, with his cutting or on the offensive glass.”
Overall though, the Lakers still played a solid game on the road against a quality opponent. They could’ve easily quit when they were down by 20 but continued to fight and made a game of it. Redick discussed what his team did better in the second half to get it close:
“I think the difference is we made shots. We were able to get some stops. Hard to get two stops. Really hard to get two stops on one possession. I thought we did a better job containing the ball and throughout the game, we emphasized that they’re super disruptive and we only had 10 turnovers. That’s fantastic. It was a game where if we don’t turn the ball over and we keep them off the glass, we’re gonna win the game. We did one of those pretty well. We didn’t have good ball containment in the first half. I thought we did a better job. The Jalen Green end of shot clock chuck on a double team that ends up in Amen Thompson’s hands in a two-point game, it’s just certain plays like that. They’re big momentum swings.”
The Lakers’ lack of size has been glaring in certain matchups this season with the Rockets loss being the latest example for Redick’s team.
Lakers prefer speed and athleticism over center
Despite that though, recent reports have indicated that the Lakers would prefer to acquire speed and athleticism before the trade deadline over another center.
JJ Redick has been adamant since the offseason that the Lakers would like to add a center so perhaps this is just posturing. If not though then the Lakers will need to find a way to compete on the defensive glass against bigger teams like the Rockets with the personnel they have in place.
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