Clint Capela proved he’s the glue that holds the Rockets together in Game 1
The combination of James Harden, Chris Paul and Clint Capela was unstoppable during the regular season. Not only did they win 42 of the 45 games they appeared in together, the Rockets outscored opponents by a margin of 12.1 points per 100 possessions when the three of them were on the court, giving them one of the highest net ratings in the league.
Much of the trio’s success is owed to Harden and Paul, a pair of future Hall of Famers who accounted for over a third of Houston’s scoring and over half of their assists on the season, but it also speaks to how Capela has developed since he was selected with the 25th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. For two players who dominate the ball in the way Harden and Paul do, they couldn’t ask for much more than an athletic center who knows his role and sticks to what he does best.
Game 1 of the Houston’s second round series against the Jazz was a perfect example of how that makes Capela the glue that holds the Rockets together.
Read More: The Rockets do their thing, take Game 1 from the Jazz
Mike D’Antoni’s system plays to the strengths of Harden and Paul. It starts with their ability to create efficient shots for themselves in isolation — Harden and Paul ranked first and fourth respectively in isolation scoring this season — as they are always surrounded by at least three outside shooters. With one of those shooters being slotted at the power forward position, the Rockets can give them all the room they need to attack their defenders on an island.
Doing so puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the backline of a team’s defense. Against the Jazz, that player is Rudy Gobert, this season’s leading candidate to win Defensive Player of the Year. When Harden or Paul blow by their defender in isolation, Gobert has to decide between sliding over to prevent one of them from getting a layup and sticking with Capela on the baseline to prevent the Swiss from getting a dunk, both being incredibly high percentage looks for the Rockets.
The following plays illustrate how difficult is it for even the NBA’s most effective rim protector to shut those options down at the same time. In the first video, the Rockets isolate Harden at the top of the perimeter against Jae Crowder. Crowder defends Harden closely to keep him off the 3-point line — not a bad decision considering Harden made and attempted more pull-up 3s than anyone else in the league this season — and forces him into Gobert’s help underneath the basket.
Of the two decisions Gobert has to make, he chooses to stick with Capela slightly longer than he normally would, resulting in an uncontested layup for Harden:
In the second, Gobert finds himself having to make the same read in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, only this time he chooses to rotate slightly sooner. Harden disguises his decision well, making it seem as though he’s going in for another layup before lobbing the ball to Capela at the last possible second.
Not knowing what Harden was going to do until it was too late, all Gobert could do was stand and watch in no man’s land:
Mastering where to position himself and when to make himself available for passes gives Capela gravity. Not in the same way as Stephen Curry, who uses the threat of his shooting to create scoring opportunities for others, but in ways that make the lives of Harden and Paul — as well as everyone else on the Rockets — much easier.
Other than Harden’s layup in the first quarter, you can see the impact of it here:
Since Harden and Paul are two of the best isolation scorers in the league, the Jazz don’t want Gobert to switch onto them in pick-and-rolls unless he has to. (Gobert found himself matched up with Harden and Paul in isolation a couple of times in Game 1, and those possessions went as expected). With Capela averaging a robust 1.34 points per possession as the roll man in the regular season, though, Gobert has to be careful with how much he commits to Harden as a help defender once he turns the corner. If he steps up too high, Capela will sneak behind him for an alley-oop. If he drops too low, Harden will keep his dribble alive until he gets an open shot.
In this particular situation, the Jazz got what they wanted — a pull-up from inside the perimeter, which is a shot Harden rarely attempts despite the fact that he made it at a high rate this season. The Jazz have built the scariest defense in the league by limiting the amount of shots opponents get at the 3-point line and at the rim, forcing them to instead score over Gobert from midrange or in the paint. It’s a blueprint the Spurs had success with against the Rockets in last season’s playoffs, but that team didn’t have one of the best midrange scorers in NBA history to back up Harden:
The Jazz will likely live with Harden shooting contested pull-ups from midrange. Paul, less so. While those shots made up a smaller portion of his offense this season than years past, he still made over half of his 2-point pull-up attempts. He was equally as efficient from there last season, when they represented 46.0 percent of his total shot attempts. So if the Jazz leave Paul open from midrange, he knows how to make them pay. And if they have Gobert extend himself further away from the basket than he usually would to take that option away, you should know by now who the beneficiary will be.
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This is against one of the best defensive team in the NBA, too. There are a number of reasons to believe that the Jazz will be put up a much better fight in Game 2 — they had little time betweeen Game 6 of last series and Game 1 of this series, Gobert was oddly ineffective protecting the rim and the Spurs suffered a similar defeat in Game 1 last season before winning four of the next five — but history shows that there’s little anyone can do to slow down the Rockets when Harden, Paul and Capela are all on the court together.