Growing up, my friends and I would go to the park and play basketball against men, who were at least 10 years older than we were. They would bully us on offense and defense, often while using their strength and experience against us. Ultimately, we were never victorious and would usually leave the court with our egos and bodies bruised.
As the young Houston Rockets (1-4) prepare to take on the veteran-led Los Angeles Lakers (3-3) in consecutive road games on Sunday and Tuesday, they should be aware that they are taking on a team that will use their experience as well as their bodies to try and push them around.
Los Angeles is led by one of the greatest players of all-time in LeBron James. Standing at 6-foot-9 and weighing in at 250 pounds, James has the basketball intelligence to bully his way to whatever spot he wants on the court. That is a lot of pressure defensively on Houston’s young players, such as forwards Jae’Sean Tate and Christian Wood.
“They are going to try to beat us up on the glass,” said Rockets head coach Stephen Silas. “They are going to attack the paint, like they do in transition. They are a big physical team, and the way big, physical teams affect you is by imposing that on their opponents.”
When James is not imposing his will towards the basket, he finds other physical players like Anthony Davis and Carmelo Anthony, who can be hard to stop in the paint with their size and huge frames. Add in point guard Russell Westbrook to the mix, and you have a recipe for disaster for the Rockets when it comes to stopping the Lakers.
Silas knows that his team has a big task on hand, but he believes that there is one way the Rockets can combat the physicality. “They are going to try to be as physical as possible with us, and we are going to have to meet that challenge and find ways to either handle it, or play fast enough to where we don’t have to deal with it,” Houston’s second-year head coach said in comments prior to Sunday’s tipoff.
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