Should Rockets Give Dorian Finney-Smith Minutes Over Jae'Sean Tate vs. Lakers?

The Houston Rockets have struggled offensively during their opening round series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Well, the Rockets have struggled on both ends of the floor in the series.

Luke Kennard is averaging a series-best 25 points and 72.7 percent from deep. (Yes, you read that right). Marcus Smart is averaging 20 points, 52 percent from the field, 50 percent from three and 7.5 assists.

And LeBron James is averaging 23.5 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 48.6 percent from the field, 42.9 percent from deep and two stocks. As a reminder, this is the 41-year-old iteration of James that we're talking about here.

So, again, the Rockets' struggles haven't been limited just to offensive execution, or a lack thereof. They haven't great on defense, either, but they've certainly been better.

And that's the one area between the two that figures to self-correct, especially when taking into account Rockets coach Ime Udoka's defensive strengths. So back to Houston's offensive struggles.

The Rockets have failed to score 100 points in either game and have posted a 39 percent mark from the field, which ranks as the second worst through the first two games of any postseason series by any Lakers opponent throughout their history.

Houston has made just 29 percent of their triples. Could Dorian Finney-Smith help with Houston's outside shooting deficiencies?

ESPN's Kendrick Perkins thinks so, calling for Rockets coach Ime Udoka to insert him in the rotation.

"And then, when you look across the board at Ime Udoka and his rotations, you have Finney-Smith on the sidelines. You haven't used him once.

You're one of the worst shooting 3-point teams in the NBA. You shot 7-for-29 from three last night."

Finney-Smith has registered two healthy scratches, with both coming as DNP's, by way of the coach's decision. To be fair to Udoka, Finney-Smith wasn't good from deep either during the regular season, as he made just 27 percent of his threes on 2.7 attempts (and 33 percent of his field goals).

He even admitted that he was working his way back through injury. But we've seen Jae’Sean Tate log minutes in the series and he made just 31.3 percent of his treys during the regular season, so what's the difference?

(Aside from the fact that Finney-Smith is paid $12.7 million annually, while Tate makes just $2.7 million this year, which seems like even more reason for Finney-Smith to play more).

Tate hasn't made any of his threes during the first two games, so why not give Finney-Smith some minutes? It's something that Udoka will have to consider.

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