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The Lakers are about to take on the Houston Rockets in the second round of the NBA playoffs, and they’re a team that beat L.A. twice during the course of the regular season and seeding games. The Rockets also are about as diametrically different stylistically from the Lakers as possible, which could make for fascinating series.
On the latest episode of the Silver Screen & Roll podcast, Sabreena joined Jeremy Brener and Michael Brown of “Harden My Take”, an SB Nation Rockets podcast, to preview the matchup. They go over what makes this series so interesting, starting with the general stylistic clash between L.A. playing big and Houston’s small ball. The Lakers could theoretically make adjustments to match what Houston does, but the Rockets are essentially locked in to this particular approach to the game.
The three of them then move into the specific matchups, including which star duo — LeBron James and Anthony Davis or James Harden and Russell Westbrook — will be more successful. Backcourt stars have had more impact in the postseason thus far, but James and Davis are unlike any frontcourt duo in the league, and in recent history.
They also discussed which bench options are more likely to make an impact (truly, more Austin Rivers/Rajon Rondo talk than you could ever need) and follow that up with some Twitter questions before making their series predictions. The primary takeaway from all three of them is that there is the potential for a great deal of variance in this matchup, so buckle up for what could be a wild series.
You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.
You can follow Sabreena on Twitter at @sabreenajm.