Los Angeles Lakers have had a rough start to the NBA bubble. After pulling off a sloppy win against the LA Clippers, the Lakers have stumbled. They lost two one-sided games to the Toronto Raptors and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both the losses have been highlighted by the misfiring performances of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Basically, the entire team has had shooting struggles.

The Lakers are one of the worst offensive teams in the league right now. The Houston Rockets on the other hand have been one of the best. The Rockets started the bubble with a high-scoring OT victory against the Dallas Mavericks. They then throttled the best team in the league, the Milwaukee Bucks to produce a surprise result. They fumbled to the Portland Trailblazers but will look to get back to form against the slow Lakers.

The Rockets’ small-ball revolution had it’s first big success against the Lakers when they blew them out 121-111 in February. The team has been hot and cold since, but are definitely edging towards hot right now. The Lakers have been the coldest they have all season. So how do these teams line up against each other?

Los Angeles Lakers big-ball vs Houston Rockets small-ball?

Lakers will look to use their guard rotations to do their best to throttle Russell Westbrook and James Harden. You can expect J.R. Smith and Danny Green making life on the perimeter hard for Harden. Alex Caruso would be the best physical matchup for Westbrook, as there is nobody else to match Westbrook’s physicality.

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Just as the Lakers will have to figure out how to tackle the Rockets guards, the Rockets have to figure out the Lakers bigs, Rockets have struggled to rebound, so the Lakers’ size in the post may derail the Rockets fast-break offense. Robert Covington is the best match-up for Anthony Davis and there really is no matchup for Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee.

The Rockets have proven that they can win despite their struggles rebounding. The Lakers will have to be careful about tightening the sloppy play we have seen in the bubble, as the Rockets guard would absolutely feast on sloppy fast-break situations.

Source: Basketball Reference (1), (2)