Micro-ball Prevails Again
The Rockets report, brought to you by APG&E: Rockets defeat Lakers in Los Angeles 121-111
Feb 7, 2020, 12:53 am
The spotlight doesn't get any brighter than this. After stunningly trading away starting center Clint Capela for swingman Robert Covington, the Rockets added one more feather in their cap in regards to their micro-ball theory. Again, Houston did not play a player over 6 foot 7 and managed to do it successfully against a giant Lakers team.
The story obviously starts with how Houston performed on the glass. Conventional wisdom says the Rockets would be at a huge rebounding disadvantage against this massive Lakers team with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and JaVale McGee in the starting lineup. However, the Rockets managed to rebound pretty well as a group and only lose the rebounding battle 38-37.
And though Anthony Davis did have a dominant night (32 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 steals on 14 of 21 shooting from the field), Houston stayed discipline and maximized their own advantages in this matchup. For example, the Rockets forced 16 more more turnovers for the fifth game in a row and scored 26 fast break points. Houston also shot 19 of 42 from three-point range (45.2%) as compared to Los Angeles' 9 of 31 shooting from deep (29.0%).
On a night where the NBA universe predicted they'd fall flat on their face in fully adopting this experiment, they displayed what could be possible. Obviously, it's too early for anyone to have victory laps as the Rockets have only been playing this way for five games straight. The true tests will come with consistency.
Star of the game: In a game where James Harden greatly struggled (14 points on 3 of 10 shooting from the field), Russell Westbrook picked up the slack and relentlessly attacked the basket with a spaced floor. Westbrook tallied 41 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal on 17 of 28 shooting from the field and 6 of 8 shooting from the free throw line. The Lakers, as many NBA teams do, decided to trap Harden for the majority of the game, and Westbrook took hold of the lead role brilliantly tonight.
Honorable mention: You won't get many debuts as impactful as the one Robert Covington had tonight for the Rockets. Having just completed his physical in the last 24 hours and flying to Los Angeles, Covington had himself a stellar night, scoring 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field and 4 of 7 shooting from beyond the arc. He was omnipresent on the defensive end with excellent rotations, weak-side defense, and deflections. Covington also had 2 steals, 2 blocks, and was a +16 in 30 minutes. He didn't get the start tonight, but he made a damn good case for why he deserves it next game.
Key moment: The story for this Rockets team over the last five games is how excellent they've been defensively in these fourth quarters. The Rockets allowed the Lakers to score only 18 points on 8 of 23 shooting from the field. The Rockets also managed to out-rebound the Lakers 14 to 9 and force them to shoot 1 for 11 from three-point range. It seems that as the game goes along, the Rockets figure out the communication and group effort required to switch and play this small. It'll be a trend to watch going forward.
Up next: The Rockets travel to Phoenix at 8:00 p.m. on Friday to play the Suns.
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It would be kind of funny if Christian Walker simply decided he wanted to check out what the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is all about. “Ow, my left oblique feels kind of sore. How about sending me to Houston for the weekend to get an MRI?” That would be quite a bodacious move, and total bull (props to you if you see what I did there). Of course, faking pain is not the case, and the Astros now cross their fingers that their 60-million dollar free agent signee doesn’t start his Houston tenure on the injured list. It certainly isn’t encouraging to know that Walker missed about 20 percent of last season with a left oblique injury. In 2021 he spent two stints on the IL because of right oblique problems. Obviously the Astros want return on their investment as quickly and as substantially as possible, but they would be fools not to treat this conservatively. Walker turns 34 years old the second day of the regular season. No one should be having night sweats just yet over the possibility that Walker is about to become Jose Abreu 2.0. Abreu was 36 when he debuted with the Astros. However, it is accurate to note that Abreu had a significantly higher WAR in his last season before joining the Astros than did Walker.
If Walker turns out to be sidelined for a month, that would mean the Astros need a first baseman for the first week and a half or so of the regular season. Let the drumbeat for Cam Smith begin! The sample size remains laughably small, but Smith continues to speak softly and swing a very, very big stick. If you’ll accept a .636 batting average as pretty good. It’s only 11 at bats. But yowza! If Walker is to be down into the regular season, and Smith keeps rocketing line drives in the Grapefruit League, the plot thickens. Smith only has 19 at bats above single-A. That’s 19 more than Albert Pujols had when the St. Louis Cardinals decided to have him in their lineup to begin the 2001 season. Albert did fairly well. He’s merely the greatest first baseman in National League history.
The much more conservative approach would be a platoon with Jon Singleton in the lineup against most right-handed pitchers and whoever is not catching between Yainer Diaz and Victor Caratini playing against lefties. Zach Dezenzo would be another option. Cam Smith is not an option to play first base, at least not early in 2025. Just in the last few days, he’s started doing some outfield drills because of the possible pathway to the big club in right field that I wrote about last week. Cam Smith is not going to make a huge jump to the big leagues and basically try to learn a new position on the fly there. However, Isaac Paredes owns a first baseman’s glove. Paredes started 13 games at first for the Rays last season. He made 40 starts total at first over the last three seasons, his only big league starts at first, after a grand total of two at first in the minors. Paredes temporarily moving to first would open up third base for Smith. Just sayin’...
What's in a name?
File this more under trivial than trivia, but here goes. When Isaac Paredes takes the field in the season opener, he officially becomes the third Paredes in Astros’ history. Utility man Jimmy Paredes got some run during the franchise deep in the abyss stage from 2010-13. Relief pitcher Enoli Paredes got 32 1/3 innings in over three seasons 2020-22. There have been only six guys named Paredes in MLB history. Come March 27 the Astros will have had half of them.
On the farm
MLB Pipeline this week released its in order ranking of the Astros’ top 30 prospects. Cam Smith is the obvious number one. Brice Matthews is number two. Drafted as a shortstop, Matthews has a better route to the bigs as a second baseman, given the Astros’ weak depth chart there with Jose Altuve becoming primarily a left fielder. Outfielder Jacob Melton is third. Considering the present state of the Astros’ outfield and that Melton turns 25 this September, if worth a darn, he should play his way on to the 26-man roster at some point this year. Catcher Walker Yanek ranks fourth. He was the Astros’ first round pick last July. Dezenzo rounds out the top five.
We’re under three weeks until Opening Day. Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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