3 things to watch for Milwaukee Bucks against surging Houston Rockets

Can the Milwaukee Bucks control the paint against the Houston Rockets?

When the Rockets were on their massive 15-game losing streak, the biggest problem was that they were playing lineups that simply didn’t fit together or make much on-court sense. The biggest frustration many had was that head coach Stephen Silas played a lot of two-big lineups featuring Christian Wood and Daniel Theis.

Those were very bad lineups. Like, some of the worst in the league.

According to Cleaning the Glass (subscription required), lineups that featured both Wood and Theis were minus-20.7 per 100 possessions, which ranked in the second percentile. So they switched things up and took Theis out of the starting lineup.

Lineups with Wood and no other traditional big man (Theis and rookie Alperen Sengun) but also featuring Jae’Sean Tate, those lineups are plus-9.3 across nearly 470 possessions. They’ve found their secret sauce and it has paid off with a nice seven-game win streak.

During the aforementioned streak, Wood has averaged over 18 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game while shooting over 48 percent from deep. He’s found his groove and is powering the Rockets (along with Tate and Garrison Mathews).

The Rockets have at least three bigs who can hit the glass and score around the hoop, in addition to Tate who, despite his 6’4″ height, is an absolute terror to contain on the glass. His 7.1 percent offensive rebounding rate is in the 99th percentile among all forwards, per Cleaning the Glass.

The Bucks frontcourt will have their work cut out for them, especially when they run Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis, or DeMarcus Cousins as the lone big man. Something to keep an eye on in this one.