Jeff Green: the Rockets’ second-best player in this series? Yeah, he is, and it’s not really close at all. He’s averaging like 20 PPG for the series, on 60% shooting from the field and 50% from three. Meanwhile, the only other guy who has a legit claim to the title, Eric Gordon, just went 8-for-24 while trying to be “the man” and failing miserably (something he’s been doing for the entire series, the entire bubble, and the entire season, really [aside from that anomalous fifty-burger]). Depending on how much you hate James Harden and his style of play, you could argue that Green is actually the best player on the Rockets right now and it wouldn’t be too terribly hard to plead your case.
Forget about prime Jeff Green, or vintage Jeff Green: this is primer than prime, vintager than vintage Jeff Green, times two. He’s reasonably playing all five positions. Don’t believe me?
Point guard: CHECK. Jeff Green was seen bringing the ball up the court multiple times in this game.
Shooting guard: CHECK. Jeff Green has temporarily become a deadly shooter, and he’s shorter than Austin Daye (who was a shooting guard), so that makes him a shooting guard.
Small forward: CHECK. Jeff Green has played a lot of small forward in his career so he’s probably playing some now. Besides, how can you call him a point-forward if he’s not a forward? Checkmate haters.
Power forward: CHECK. Jeff Green has also played a lot of power forward in his career. Given the lack of bigs on the Rockets’ roster, Green is probably the “power forward” fairly often.
Center: CHECK. The Rockets’ commitment to small-ball means that any player over 6’6″ will play center at some point. He probably would struggle to deal with Steven Adams, but he can deal with Nerlens Noel just fine. Noel is a twiglet.
While LeBron carries his team to victories against a surprisingly feisty Blazers squad by unleashing his ageless all-around game, Green is basically doing the same exact thing for the Rockets. It’s hard not to get carried away by hype here, but I’m forcing myself to remember that Green has never been a consistent player, and it would be very unwise to start expecting these kind of performances from him for the duration of the playoffs.