Major shoutout to Alex Caruso in both these playoff rounds, man. He's simply such an absurdly positive/impact player on defense.

The Lakers a +16 in 369 non-garbage time possessions against the Rockets and have a defRTG of just 100 when he's on. When he's off, a defRTG of 115.7. https://twitter.com/Tim_NBA/status/1303758206972329984

Just textbook defense by Caruso on this Harden step back. Initially playing for the deny, then gets into his chest. Stays lateral and contests by flying by and past his shoulder instead of directly at him. Limiting Harden's ability to kick his leg out/draw contact.

And again here. Caruso picks up Harden full court, stays on his hip but again is careful about picking up contact as he does a really good job outstretching his arms to take away the pass and stays vertical to contest and ultimately block this driving attempt.

One of the challenges with trapping, blitzing, zone, etc, is that rotations have to be sharp and on time. Take this scramble possession and watch how Caruso times where the extra pass/swing is coming before or at the exact time Westbrook is about to kick it. Just a great closeout

Caruso AGAIN, holy shit man. Absorbs the forearm from Russ on this drive, gets back into the play and once again does a tremendous job staying vertical and just swallows up this shot attempt.

Caruso wanted this damn shot haha. Called/motioned for the ball initially, then had his hands in the ready position for the shot. Splash. Then some chirping.

This concludes my Caruso thread.