Draymond Green: P.J. Tucker could be best ever at corner 3-pointers

The Rockets were +18 in the 34 minutes that Tucker played in Game 2, and -26 in the 14 other minutes. Draymond Green seemed to notice.

In the 2018 and 2019 NBA playoffs, Houston and Golden State had a pair of tight series that went six and seven games, respectively. The Warriors advanced each time, but the Rockets clearly earned their respect.

Draymond Green, who has anchored Golden State’s frontcourt for years, frequently did battle with rugged Rockets veteran P.J. Tucker.

Green is observing the playoffs in a different capacity in 2020, since his Warriors had the league’s worst record after an injury-plagued season. So, during Sunday’s Game 2 of the second-round playoff series between Tucker’s Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers, Green took to Twitter to share his admiration for the corner 3-point shooting by his rival.

For multiple seasons, Tucker has led the league in made 3-pointers from both the left and right corners. In Sunday’s Game 2 against the Lakers, the 35-year-old had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Rockets, and he made 4-of-7 shots from 3-point range (57.1%).

Houston lost the game after falling behind by 21 points early, but hot 3-point shooting from the likes of Tucker helped the Rockets unlock a Los Angeles defense that utilized a zone early in the game and frequently trapped All-Star guard James Harden to force the ball out of his hands.

“They caught us offguard, but I think later in the game, we did a pretty good job of it,” Harden said of how Houston attacked the zone. “We just weren’t aggressive enough, and we didn’t attack their zone enough.”

After scoring just 20 points in the first quarter, Houston scored a combined 72 in the next two quarters as they began figuring it out.

Moving forward, that could lead to even more 3-pointers for the 6-foot-5 veteran. It’s worth noting that even if the Lakers are able to close out more on the 3-point line, Tucker showed during his winning shot in Game 7 of the first-round series versus Oklahoma City that he’s also capable of making an occasional bucket off the bounce, in those scenarios.

In all, the Rockets were +18 in the 34 minutes that Tucker played on Sunday, and -26 in the 14 minutes that he did not.

In a national TV broadcast on TNT, Game 3 between the Rockets and Lakers is set to tip-off at 8:00 p.m. Central on Tuesday night. The series is now tied, 1-1, after Houston’s Game 2 loss on Sunday night.

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