People outside of the Los Angeles Lakers organization didn’t give them much of a chance to advance past the Houston Rockets in round one of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers’ playoff odds were decimated once they announced Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves would miss extended time, so most penciled in the Rockets as the easy pick to move on. However, Los Angeles wound up making the first punch in the series as they managed to upset Houston in Game 1 and claim a 107-98 victory.
Playoff basketball isn’t always aesthetically pleasing and Los Angeles had several rough moments they’d like to forget, but head coach JJ Redick praised his team for staying calm after mistakes.
“[I] just thought we were really poised as a team,” he said after the win. “We had a great next play mentality. Wasn’t a perfect game. None of these games are gonna be perfect. Got some contributions from a lot of people in a lot of different ways and made enough winning plays despite the turnovers and the offensive rebounds.”
The Lakers caught a break when the Rockets ruled Kevin Durant out for Game 1 due to a right knee contusion, but Redick still credited them for staying focused and responding the right way.
“Yeah, I don’t think it affected our mentality,” Redick said of Durant being out. “Again, this is all we’ve talked about for two months. It’s just our playoff mentality. You can’t worry about who’s in or out of the lineup. It’s our game plan. It’s our standards. It’s how we play and we’ve built towards that.
“I thought our guys just responded well and met the moment. That’s the biggest thing. You gotta meet the moment in every game. And they were able to do that. There’s a lot that you have to do with Kevin and you just kind of scrap that and you move on to all the other stuff we worked on.”
One thing that stuck out about the purple and gold post-All-Star break is they found a way to band together against better competition and stay in games no matter what happened on the floor. That kind of mental strength and endurance plus their collective experience make them a dangerous opponent despite being shorthanded.
While winning Game 1 was a massive accomplishment, there are still areas that Los Angeles needs to clean up if they want to win the series. Although they forced 13 Houston turnovers, they committed 20 of their own. The Lakers were also poor from the free throw line as they went 17-of-26.
Los Angeles can’t afford to be as sloppy in Game 2, but they’ve at least shown they should be taken more seriously.
Luke Kennard: Lakers believe they have chance against Rockets
The outside world wrote the Lakers off as soon as the Doncic and Reaves injuries happened, but the team continued to find ways to win basketball games. Luke Kennard has been a major part of Los Angeles’ success and he said there’s still belief in the locker room they can beat Houston despite the odds.
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