When the Los Angeles Lakers began their first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, many felt that Deandre Ayton would be the biggest key to their chances of winning. Almost no one picked the Lakers to win the series, and there was probably plenty of doubt that Ayton would hold his own against Alperen Sengun, the Rockets’ two-time All-Star center.
Ayton averaged 11.8 points per game over the six games, which may seem disappointing. But in reality, he played very well overall, and he especially did so in the two big areas L.A. needed him to shine in: defense and rebounding.
He pounded the boards to the tune of 10.8 rebounds a game, including 16 rebounds in the Game 6 clincher. He also played excellent positional defense on Sengun. Ayton didn’t let Sengun back him deep into the paint, and he also did a great job of contesting Sengun’s shots. Sengun got his usual numbers, but he didn’t seem to make the type of impact one would expect.
After Game 6 on Friday, the Lakers’ big man talked about the mentality he brought to the court during the series.
“You have to have some type of stop sign where enough is enough,” Ayton said. “You have to match the physicality in a way where it’s contagious to your teammates as well. So I just tried to play as I am, the biggest dude on the court, and just go out and get every damn rebound. It got to a point where I didn’t even know I was hitting guys and giving certain blows just off boxing out.
“… When there were switches, I took advantage of the glass, and when I’m in pick and roll I had position to box out and grab O-boards as well. It was just things I was really picking up throughout the series of where I can affect the game if I couldn’t score.”
Ayton also revealed that coach JJ Redick challenged him to neutralize Sengun defensively.
“JJ and the coaches really challenged me about guarding Sengun one-on-one … We just wanted to go back on how we guarded them if KD (Kevin Durant) were out there. Guard them straight up and I took the challenge to my chin. Just putting the team on my back and them trusting me. It really gave me that power to really close out possessions.”
Rebounding was a big problem for Los Angeles early in the series. The Rockets were tops in overall rebounding and offensive rebounding percentage during the regular season, but Los Angeles outrebounded them in the last three contests of the series. Ayton was a major reason that happened, as he grabbed a total of 43 rebounds in those three contests.
Now it is on to the second round of the playoffs and a date with the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. No matter what happens during that matchup, it seems as if Ayton has come a pretty long way from where he was a couple of months ago when Lakers fans were seemingly making him the scapegoat for the team’s shortcomings.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Deandre Ayton on the mentality he brought to Lakers vs. Rockets series
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
