World, Meet Chuck Hayes

Even with Yao gone, Houston-L.A. holds must-watch status. Ron Artest is the nation's most unpredictable athlete, and Kobe is liable to sacrifice goats at midcourt any given night. (Also, he's liable to score 50 or so.) And I may have overreacted in deeming this series over. Sure, Houston's offense has been troubled with Yao. It will likely continue to be troubled. But Aaron Brooks and Artest can blast off on a dime, and dimes come by the dozen in the overwhelmingly unpredictable NBA playoffs.

But the real query I have coming into Game 4 today concerns one Chuck Hayes. Rick Adelman has named Chuck as Yao's replacement. Yao is, as you're well aware, 7'6. The standard NBA center is between 6'10 and 7'2. Chuck Hayes is ... 6'6. He'd be the second shortest starter in the Lakers line-up. Hell, wait -- he's the second shortest starter in Houston's lineup! But he'll be the Rockets top center tonight.

... and the Rockets will be fine on defense, where you'd think the size issue would hurt. Hayes is a magnificent defender. He'd challenge for first-team All Defense if he played big minutes. He doesn't play big minutes because, well, Houston has other good-to-great defenders, and Hayes is a disaster on offense. Someone who takes only five shots for every 36 minutes played should hit more than 38% of them, right? Right. But Hayes doesn't, or at least didn't this year. You can only excuse offensive ineptitude so long, even with important, incredible defense.

But Adelman has little other choice. A Carl Landry-Luis Scola frontline probably can't handle Pau and either Bynum or Odom. Houston will win with defense if it wins, so Hayes needs to be in there at the start. It will be interesting to see if Hayes can overcome his offensive deficiencies, or how long Adelman stays with him otherwise. Game starts at 3:30 PM ET.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.