The Los Angeles Lakers went into Wednesday night playing their best basketball of the season, winners of six straight, including a few over playoff teams.
They kicked off their road trip by beating the Houston Rockets, and the two teams then squared off again for the second straight game. This was an extremely important game as the winner would secure the regular season tiebreaker over the loser. Ultimately, it was the Lakers that came out on top with an impressive 124-116 win.
LeBron James got off to a nice start in this one with a pair of 3-pointers, and then Deandre Ayton had six points of his own inside to put the Lakers up 12-10 early.
Unlike the last matchup, the Lakers were hot from deep in the first quarter with Rui Hachimura coming off the bench and drilling his first attempt. Luka Doncic got off to a slow start offensively, but he was still the first player in double figures after getting going at the end of the first quarter to give the Lakers a 35-26 lead.
James threw down two massive dunks to begin the second quarter as the Lakers continued to grow their lead.
Houston was ice cold from deep but kept attempting them, which allowed L.A. to get a number of easy buckets in transition. Doncic kept finding his teammates on long outlet passes and James, in particular, was throwing everything down. LeBron was 8-for-8 from the field in the first half and the Lakers took a 67-55 lead into the break.
After scoring just two points in the first half, Kevin Durant had five straight to begin the third quarter. It was all Rockets early in the second half as they ripped off an 18-5 run to take their first lead.
Houston moved Durant off the ball so the Lakers couldn’t double team him as easily, and that definitely got him going offensively. But after another alley-oop thrown down by James, the game was tied at 81.
Doncic had the final eight points of the third quarter for the Lakers, but they were still outscored by 15 in the frame and went into the fourth trailing 92-89.
Austin Reaves, who didn’t do much in the first three quarters, hit a triple to begin the fourth. Jake LaRavia then had a steal and a dunk, followed by another Reaves bucket to rip off a 7-0 run.
As soon as the Lakers appeared to be taking control though, they committed some costly turnovers and Durant made them pay to take the lead right back for the Rockets.
James was fouled hard on a breakaway dunk attempt and appeared to hurt his right elbow, although he wound up being OK.
With the Lakers down two, Hachimura and Doncic both hit 3-pointers to go up by four and force a Rockets timeout. It was all Doncic from there as he found James for an alley-oop and then hit another triple for the dagger to close it out.
What’s next for the Lakers…
After two games in Houston, the Lakers will head east for the next four games of their road trip, starting with a matchup against the Miami Heat on Thursday in the second night of a back-to-back.
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