Though the Kings beat the Rockets badly on the offensive glass on Saturday, most of the damage came when the Rockets’ lead had reached at least 20. That gave Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni the ample useful video to show on Tuesday, a day before the league’s top offensive rebounder comes to town, without having to take a loss to learn a lesson.
“Being up 25 points leads to that,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said of the Rockets allowing a season-high 23 second-chance points on Saturday. “I just watched the film with the guys in there. Every time we were up 20 and made a mistake, we just didn’t box out. It happens. We could get on them out of a win, which is the best way to do it.”
Pistons center Andre Drummond, who leads the NBA in rebounding (16.2 per game), averages a league-high 6.1 offensive rebounds, scoring a league-best 6.9 second-chance points. With the Rockets’ switching defense, guards will often be matched up on Drummond, making it much more difficult to keep him off the offensive glass.
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The Rockets are tied for 24th in defensive rebounding percentage, though that has picked up a bit in their turnaround defensively since the slow start, ranking 18th in the past nine games.
“Every defense, you have a weakness,” D’Antoni said. “Little guys will have to box him out and try the best they can. We’ll probably give up put-backs that you just can’t avoid. But even when you don’t switch, they’re really good on the offensive boards. Just don’t panic and do what we do and we should be OK if we do it well enough.”
With James Harden averaging 5.3 rebounds and Chris Paul 5.1, the Rockets are the only team with a pair of guards averaging at least five rebounds.
“It’s tough,” Chris Paul said. “You have to try to get inside position. For a guy like me, just try to box out as much as possible, use my legs. If it comes off, hopefully you get the rebound, or if not, sometimes you can box him out and let somebody else get the rebound.”