2026 Playoffs: (4) Lakers Vs (5) Rockets - Discussion

Playoff basketball gets a life of its own. Huge underdog but I think it is just in the cards.

 

JJ is doing an awesome job, as is our new big 4 of Lebron, Smart, Luke and Kleber.

 

i think there's no way this defensive strategy works against basically any non-houston team, but jj definitely has found something that really bothers them.

i thought it was strange udoka went away from sheppard when he made 5 threes in game 1. yes, he shot poorly overall, but we just weren't respecting a lot of their guys on the perimeter.

it seems their plan was just to ratchet up the physicality, but...we've kind of seen that, and our guys appear to be all for it (lebron, smart, vando, and laravia in particular).

on our side the second quarter swoons have been weird. during each one, we had a string of semi-forced turnovers that gave houston opportunities in transition that haven't been there for the other 45 minutes of the game.

anyway, will be interesting to see what, if any, changes houston makes. i can imagine them just saying: kennard and smart won't keep basically replacing luka and reaves on offense (lol), but it's happened twice now.

they even did some of the stuff i expected (hounded kennard, got us to make lebron make catches further from the hoop, used durant's midrange to break the quasi-zone early), but didn't win. just another game of full-effort team defense and some serious shot-making from the starting backcourt. i hope luka and reaves are watching this, btw. if you can defend like this with kennard and rui playing 43 minutes, you can keep doing it with luka and reaves.

 

So proud of this team. What a win

 

LET'S F***ING GO!!! If anything, I was UNDER-estimating our team! We're looking like 80-20 or even 90-10 out there!

Realistically, we lose Game 3, but f*** it, let's keep being GREEDY! I honestly think we're still 50-50 or better in Game 3. It's just a question of motivations. Should Houston come out on fire? Of course. But they could also come out deflated, given what's happened so far and how much of a mess they are. Could the Lakers come out soft and slow and fat and happy off these 2 wins? Of course. But they could also come out invigorated, on top of the world, and ready to win another game. If both teams are 100% motivated and on fire and ready to go, I give us 60-40, even in a G3 situation up 2-0, and even on their court. We're the better team with the best player, and in fact, we've looked like we've had the 3 best players! So let's keep being greedy, and let's f***ing go!

 

Smart & Kennard combined in G2: 48 pts, 9 asts, 8 rebs, 8 stls, 1 blk, 8 3's, shooting 8-13 62% from 3, 16-26 62% overall, and 8-9 89% FT's.

Smart & Kennard combined in G1: 42 pts, 11 asts, 6 rebs, 1 stl, 2 blks, 6 3's, shooting 6-10 60% from 3, 14-25 56% overall, and 8-14 57% FT's.

That's 2 players besides LeBron, EACH averaging 22.5 pts, 5.0 asts, 3.5 rebs, 2,3 stls, 0.8 blks, 3.5 3's, shooting 61% from 3, 59% overall, and 70% FT.

Add in LeBron, and that's THREE guys EACH averaging 22.8 pts, 6.7 asts, 5.0 rebs, 2.0 stls, 0.7 blks, 2.8 3's, shooting 57% from 3, 55% overall, and 67% FT.

New Big 3 indeed. Incredible.

 

Yeah. That was really fun to watch.

 

Yeah. F it. All bets are off. Let's go for another win and get these guys out of here.