2 Areas the Rockets Must Emphasize During Lakers Postseason Series

The Houston Rockets' opening round postseason series against the Los Angeles Lakers is about as evenly matched as it gets. Well, from a seeding standpoint.

The Lakers hold the fourth seed and the Rockets hold the fifth seed. Chronologically speaking, it's the closest a postseason matchup can get. In the quarterfinal round.

The two teams are separated by just one win, as the Lakers stacked up 53 wins, while the Rockets stacked up 52 wins. And both teams are dealing with significant injuries of major importance to each respective ball club.

For the Lakers, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are out, at least for now. For the Rockets, Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams are out for the entirety of the series.

The matchup is set, and it's one that the Rockets' brass had been eyeing as the season neared a close. The schedule is even set.

Well, somewhat. At least for the most part. Now it's time to play the games.

And the Rockets will need to emphasize two areas: limiting turnovers and dominating on the glass. It's going to determine the series.

So much so that the Lakers have been placing most importance on those two areas all week, as explained by Lakers coach JJ Redick.

"Taking care of the basketball and boxing out. That’s the series. Schemes, personnel, obviously important. But if we don’t take care of the ball, we don’t box out, we’re not going to win the series. They were No. 4 in scoring opportunities, we were No. 23. We don’t have the luxury with Luka and AR out of getting killed in scoring opportunities every single game. We have to box out."

Redick continued.

"We started practice with boxing out today. The only thing we did today was box out and take care of the ball.”

The Rockets turned the ball over a bunch during the regular season. The team had the seventh most turnovers all season at 15.4.

You'd have to go back to the Stephen Silas tanking era to find the last time this ball club turned the ball over that much. In the playoffs, that can kill you.

Every possession matters. You have to be able to maximize them.

The positive, in this regard, is that the Lakers don't exactly protect the ball, either. In fact, they turn it over almost as much as the Rockets, at 14.5 turnovers per game.

In the rebounding category, the Rockets should be able to dominate here. Houston ranks third in rebounding since the All-Star break (without Steven Adams) and the Lakers rank 23rd.

Houston ranks second in offensive rebounding, while the Lakers rank second to last. All told, these two areas will swing the tide in this series.

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