In an effort to limit the production of the Houston Rockets’ small ball lineup, Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis is reportedly willing to move into the center position.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports explored the Lakers’ Game 1 Western Conference semifinals loss and noted the struggles the team had in dealing with the Rockets’ on-court speed. One potential strategy is to change the look of the Lakers’ regular lineup.
“Lakers big man JaVale McGee got the usual start at center, but only played 12 minutes in the Rockets’ dominant 112-97 victory,” wrote Haynes. “And backup center Dwight Howard registered only 11 minutes, meaning a true center accounted for playing less than half the game.
“And that still might be too many center minutes in this series with the Rockets trotting out 6-foot-5 P.J. Tucker as their five man. Lakers star Anthony Davis is not fond of playing center, but he wouldn’t be going up against a traditional big in this matchup.
“Davis is willing to slide up from power forward in this series, league sources told Yahoo Sports.”
On an otherwise bad night for the Lakers, Davis was his usual productive self, scoring 25 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in the 112-97 loss.
One of the chief problems during the evening was the Rockets’ success in exploiting mistakes by the Lakers as they scored 27 points on 17 Lakers turnovers.
Last year, following the injury to DeMarcus Cousins, Davis’ name was mentioned as a last-ditch option at center, but the Lakers chose to go with the combination of McGee and Howard and achieved success.
While the loss to the Rockets has made the road to the Western Conference finals a little longer, the Lakers aren’t in panic mode. That’s because they lost the first game of their opening playoff series to the Portland Trail Blazers, then won the next four games to advance to the second round.
Game 2 of the Lakers-Rockets series will take place at 8:30 p.m. EST on Sunday.
