Vista of Lake Buena, Fla. – Los Angeles Lakers Cavi Leonard would have missed out on joining LeBron James and Anthony Davis and agreeing to form the “Big Three” last summer, but Lakers coach Frank Vogel said L.A.’s team defense is running out. A similar effect would have been added to another L-NBA mix individually.
“He’s as powerful a weapon as one of these playoff runs. He’s as powerful as a superstar,” Vogel said as he led the Houston Rockets 110-100 to a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series on Thursday. “If you have elite defense, it could be your third star, so to speak.”
Aside from catching Houston as a team to 43 43.4% shooting, the LAA limited James Harden to just 21 points in a 2-for-11 shooting from the field. Despite making 16 throw-throw attempts in the Harden 20, he was well placed with a league-leading average of 34.3 points per game.
James, who lost a triple double in just 4 games with 16 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists, focused only on the impressive performance of the Lakers trying to pull off a defense against Harden.
“James is probably the best offensive player we’ve ever seen in this league,” the Lakers star said. “I mean he had 20 free throw attempts and we’re trying not to put him on the free throw line. One of the plans of our game is not to put him on the free throw line and we’re trying not to put him ahead for free. Throwing line, and that guy is so clever that he could still make 20 free throw attempts.
“So we’re just trying to remove anything we can from him, because he can score. [anywhere]. He goes from his floaters to the paint with his runners. Obviously, he’s got a step back. He’s got 3s in transition. He has catch-and-shoot 3s when he’s on the ball. And as I said, it’s very difficult with his moves in the paint, where he reaches the free throw line. So we’re just trying to snatch a few things. We can’t strip everything, because that’s how great it is aggressively. We try to follow the game plan and see what happens from there. “
The LAA caught Hardon 17 times in the pick-and-roll on Thursday, more than twice as many times as he has been trapped in a playoff game in the last six years, according to Second Spectrum data. The Lakers have trapped the former MVP a total of 13 times in the first three games of the series.
The Rockets averaged 0.714 points per possession as the Lakers caught Harden in the game. Houston’s average of 1.13 points during the season was that major drop-wash, ranking ninth in the league.
“When you have confidence you can go to four, five, six properties where you’re just admitting another team’s offense, stop and then with our ability to run that floor with LeBron James that’s a quarterback of that action and he’s under attack. Mode, we as a group are confident in what can be accomplished, ”Vogel said.
Despite his defensive performance, Davis – who was the runner-up for this year’s Defensive Player of the Year for the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antoine Ompo this season – was not satisfied with his performance in the end.
“I think I’m taking a step back on the defensive rotation tonight. I think I can stay better defensively,” said Davis, who led the Lakers with 29 points with 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. Was advanced. “Kind of knocking my verse early [in Game 4]. But just to keep me going, I go inside and try to get an aggressive rebound, create a screen for my fellow players, do all the abstraction and make sure I can influence the game in ways other than just scoring a basketball scl. “
L.A. Will have the opportunity to close the rocket in Game 5 on Saturday and enter the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2010.
“We’re happy with what we were doing on the defensive end,” Vogel said. “It simply came to our notice then [can be cut down]. The plan with the protection of James Harden was not to put him on the free throw line and we gave him 20 free throw attempts. So, we’ll make sure we’re doing a better job there, but overall, we’re just trying to limit it and make it as uncomfortable as possible.
“He’s seen every coverage in the world and he knows how to attack it. Like I said with this group and all with him: We’re not going to be comfortable because we know what he’s capable of. So, we just Keep watching the movie, get better, strengthen the plan of every game we play and hopefully get better in Game 5. “
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