Los Angeles Clippers: The Rockets are more dangerous than the Lakers

The Los Angeles Clippers’ biggest challenge in the Western Conference appears to be the Los Angeles Lakers, but it isn’t, it is the Houston Rockets.

The Los Angeles Clippers have the second-best record in the Western Conference and many people are already penciling in a Clippers-Los Angeles Lakers Western Conference Finals. While the Lakers are a great team, the Clippers might end up facing a bigger challenge prior to the Lakers, all depending on the final seeding.

If the Los Angeles Clippers have to face the Houston Rockets, who are currently the fifth-seed in the Western Conference, prior to the Western Conference Finals then it will prove to be a bigger challenge to the Clippers than the Lakers.

The Lakers are absolutely a great team and on paper, they probably are more talented all-around than the Rockets. However, with some bad blood against Houston and the team’s playstyle, the Rockets have a better equation to beat the Clippers than the Lakers.

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With the Lakers, the hope is in the playoffs that their style of offense will be easy to figure out over several games and the defensive trio of Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Montrezl Harrell will be able to limit LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

With Patrick Beverley to close out on shooters, the Clippers can easily deploy the same defensive strategy that the Milwaukee Bucks did against the Lakers on Thursday to outclass them.

The Rockets, though, are a different story. They also have a superstar duo that the Clippers are going to look to limit but it is not going to be as easy, for two reasons. First, the team plays a lot of isolation, which kind of takes out the team defense dynamic that the Clippers thrive in.

Second of all, they have the best isolation player of maybe this century in James Harden, who is averaging 38.5 points, 7.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game while shooting 36.2 percent from beyond the arc and 44.5 percent overall. It also helps that he averages 11 points per game from the free-throw line.

We have seen this firsthand in the Clippers’ matchups against the Rockets. If Harden has things cooking then there is not much the Clippers can do other than keep up while he is hot. The hope is that in a seven-game series he cools down more often than not, which has happened.

But that is what makes Russell Westbrook a good fit despite the hiccups thus far. In the playoffs, Westbrook is going to be that high-energy guy that can completely swing the momentum of a game.

We see it all the time: all it takes if for Westbrook to snag a rebound and then bang a dunk in transition.

That high-energy also poses a problem for the Clippers because it absolutely has an impact on Patrick Beverley, who has fouled out in all three matchups against the Rockets. Beverley’s biggest strength — disrupting the game — is also his biggest weakness as he has gotten too emotional in these games.

And while the Clippers have great team defense, it is going to be much harder to stop the duo of Westbrook and Harden without Beverley.

Personally, I still think that the Los Angeles Clippers can get the job done in a seven-game series with Doc Rivers‘ coaching and the inhuman level that Kawhi Leonard rises to in the playoffs every single year.

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However, it is scary to think that the Clippers might have to face a worse matchup in the Rockets prior to facing the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, which could take a lot out of the team.

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