SAN FRANCISCO – Jock Landale had a seemingly sound strategy if he was needed to play a few minutes in place of fellow big Steven Adams, who was briefly considered questionable to play with an illness just before the Houston Rockets faced the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of their opening round playoff series.
“Just play my ass off,” said Landale, a Saint Mary’s College alum, on Monday at Chase Center less than 90 minutes before tipoff. “That’s all you can do, so it kind of starts and finishes there, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
Landale, unavailable for the first three games of the series with a knee contusion, did not play against the Warriors. Adams did and was a +16 in over 26 minutes in the Rockets’ 109-106 loss to Golden State, which took a 3-1 series lead into Houston and can advance with a win in Wednesday’s Game 5.
But the 29-year-old Landale knows part of his job is being ready on short notice.
In 42 games, Landale, now in his fourth NBA season, averaged 4.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in roughly 12 minutes per game. He was also 11-for-26 on 3-point attempts.
But with games and travel now on every other day for the rest of the series, there’s a chance Landale will have to occasionally spell Adams, whose injury issues kept him from playing in most back-to-back situations this season. When Adams did play on consecutive nights, his minutes were limited.
“Jock is a guy that stays ready and has had opportunities throughout the year with (Adams) unable to play back-to-backs,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “(He) gives us another dimension as far as a stretch big that is confident shooting. But his pace, his screening, the dirty work, and things that he does, are really good for us.
“The thing he’s done really well is staying ready at all times this year.”
Landale said he’s learned more about being a contributor in limited minutes from Udoka, who was also mostly used as a role player during his own NBA career from 2004 to 2011.
“My whole job is fairly simple. It’s just being ready to play as hard as possible,” Landale said. “So I credit (Udoke) with a lot of that as well. Early on in the season, just kind of the sporadic minutes I was getting and not knowing where things would stand until right before the game.
“I just asked him, how in his career he dealt with that, and he had some really sound advice that I leaned on. Just credit to everyone, (Adams) included, who’s usually the guy that I’m waiting on the result with, and the training staff. As soon as they know, they tell me so I always feel as I’m kind of in the know.
“And on top of that, it’s just having an edge and a mentality that I’ve got to be ready at all times.”
The undrafted Landale spent time in Serbia, Lithuania, and his native Australia before he signed with the San Antonio Spurs in 2021. He has since been traded twice, once to Atlanta and once to Phoenix, before he signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the Rockets in July 2023.
Landale’s contract, per Spotrac, would become guaranteed for next season on June 29. The Rockets have a club option on Landale’s deal for 2026-27.
Still, Landale is just one of 12 players from Saint Mary’s to play in the NBA. He played for the Gaels from 2015 to 2018 and as a senior, was the WCC Player of the Year and a second-team consensus All-American. He averaged 21.1 points and 10.2 rebounds in his final year for the Gaels, who went 30-6 and advanced to the third round of the NIT after an NCAA tournament snub.
Back in Northern California, Landale saw his sister, who lives in the Bay Area, caught up with longtime Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, and met Gaels legend Matthew Dellavedova for dinner on Sunday night.
Did Dellavedova, who played against Steph Curry and the Warriors in the NBA Finals in both 2015 and 2016 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, have any advice for facing Golden State in a hostile environment?
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“Delly has a lot to say. A lot of Bitcoin talks, to be completely honest,” Landale said. “Delly and I go way back, and a lot of advice, and just talking about hoops in general, everything. Delly’s a great sounding board for me, and just a joy to catch up with him when I can.”
Now, it’s a matter of whether the blue-collar Landale plays in this series. He has seven games of NBA playoff experience, all with the Suns in their run to the second round in 2023.
“I think that I’m a guy that can impact the game doing the nitty gritty things,” he said, “and I think that that’s always valuable in a playoff series, and I think that’s why I had success earlier in my career.”
