When the Lakers acquired LeBron James in the summer of 2018, the immediate response from the basketball world was that the Los Angeles Lakers would properly return to post-season basketball. After first year growing pains, the Lakers brass did a complete roster rebuild centered around LeBron and that included acquiring Anthony Davis and ended up as the top seed in the western conference.
As many NBA teams found out through the regular season and the Portland Trail Blazers found out in round one, it’s near impossible to stop the Lakers when Davis and James are going off together.
After dropping game one in the first round of the 2020 NBA playoff series versus the Portland, the Lakers went on a tear to win the next four games and close out the series.
In the latest Lakers Lair episode, host Randy King was joined by Lakers Insiders administrators Grant and Neal to review the Portland series as well as preview the Lakers second round match up. The Houston Rockets are next on the Lakers playoff agenda after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in a dramatic nail-biting seven-game series in the first round.
Below are a few quotes pulled from Randy, Neal, and Grant in which they begin previewing the Lakers-Rockets playoff match-up.
“My real advantage is LeBron James…I know it’s self-explanatory having LeBron as the advantage here but I just don’t see how the Rockets can have any answer for him at all especially if they have PJ (Tucker) guarding AD, LeBron is gonna have any lane he wants” – Grant
Neal then shared his thoughts on what aspect of Houston’s game gives them a shot at an upset.
“Houston is going to get a lot of corner three’s if the Lakers continue to use the two-bigs lineup and even if they (Lakers) do use Davis at center, when you have PJ Tucker, Jeff Green, and Robert Covington they are going to knock down their shots so going forward that is one huge advantage for Houston in this series.” – Neal
To which, Randy then pointed out one player in particular who could have a big series and leave his fingerprints all over this match-up.
“Regardless of how he (Danny Green) is shooting the ball, the effort he provides is never going to waver and that is one thing Lakers fans really need to understand and appreciate in that eventually his three’s will fall but you know every night his defense is going to be solid.” – Randy
