Clint Capela outplaying Rudy Gobert is very bad for the Utah Jazz

The Houston Rockets are getting a huge lift from Clint Capela in their second round series, as he outplays the likely Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert.

The Houston Rockets were expected to stroll past the Utah Jazz in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Utah has been a nice story all year due to likely Defensive Player of the Year recipient Rudy Gobert and Rookie of the Year candidate Donovan Mitchell, but the Rockets claimed the NBA’s best record in a historically dominant season.

Utah’s chances in the series hinge on its best players putting up exceptional performances against Houston. Mitchell is great, but he’s a rookie. The Jazz needed Gobert to play like the All-Star he claims he should have been.

Instead, Utah has seen their big man thoroughly outplayed by Clint Capela. The 23-year-old hasn’t received much love for any NBA honors, but he’s playing like an All-Star against the Jazz right now.

READ MORE: Capela is the glue who held the Rockets together in Game 1

Capela is averaging 15.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 3.3 blocks per game against Utah, and Gobert, thus far. According to stats.NBA.com, Capela has played just 17 of his 134 minutes in the series without Gobert on the floor.

Despite the Stifle Tower being one of the best defensive centers in the NBA, Capela has not struggled to get buckets at all. He’s shooting 60 percent from the field with Gobert on the floor, which is actually slightly below his regular season percentage but still quite efficient.

Gobert is scoring even more efficiently against Capela, hitting 76 percent of his shots, but he’s doing it with much less volume. Most of both players’ buckets have been lightly contested, if at all.

Therein lies the problem for Gobert in this series, and this matchup. Capela is not going to post him up, or try to get to the rim through him. It wouldn’t work, as Gobert is a strong Defensive Player of the Year candidate for a reason: he’s incredible at protecting the basket from close range.

What does work, however, is finding ways to draw Gobert out of the paint. Capela’s offense largely comes from going around or behind Gobert, as opposed to through him. When the Frenchman takes just a second too long to make sure either Chris Paul or James Harden aren’t getting an easy bucket, Capela takes the opportunity to flash to the basket and slam down a lob.

In the first four games against Utah, Capela has already gotten 10 alley oop attempts and 17 total dunks. He’s gotten plenty of lay-up looks off of cuts as well. Gobert is nearly impenetrable when offenses run at him in the post — Houston has simply declined to do so.

The Jazz defense has actually been better without Gobert out there as a result of Utah’s approach. Where Capela has been able to hang with and actually effectively guard Donovan Mitchell and other Jazzmen on the perimeter in short spurts after switches, Gobert cannot keep up with smaller guards when he’s dragged out of the paint.

Gobert doesn’t even try to contain Harden in the clip above, which leads directly to an open 3 for Houston. When he does venture out to the arc, Harden blows by him and finds Capela for an easy two points.

Most teams cannot generate enough spacing to force Gobert out of the paint, but the Rockets can, and have found a lot of success while doing so. While Capela has looked better in this series, the battleground isn’t fair for Gobert. Just as the Golden State Warriors did in the postseason last year, the Rockets are forcing Gobert out of his comfort zone.

Even though he’s the better defender most of the time, Gobert cannot adapt like Capela can to being stretched out. Capela is a better perimeter defender, and he’s more athletic. He’s also a hell of a rim defender, as he’s proven with 13 blocks in the series already.

If the two big men switched teams, Capela would almost certainly be less effective while Gobert would look much better. That’s an unavoidable circumstance when one team has Harden and CP3 and the other has Mitchell and Joe Ingles leading the way.

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Hypotheticals can provide useful context, but what matters is the here and now. The simple truth is Capela has been more of a factor on both ends. Gobert might be better with his back against the basket, but Capela has more tools in his arsenal, and that adaptability is giving Houston a huge boost in the series.

With the odds already stacked against Utah, Gobert losing his individual battle is making life incredibly hard for his Jazz. The Rockets will have an easy time closing this series out if Gobert finds himself on the other end of the stifling again in Game 5.