The Los Angeles Lakers began their road trip on Monday night by picking up yet another impressive win over a playoff-caliber opponent, this time in the Houston Rockets. It represents their sixth consecutive win, four of which came against teams currently in the top six of their conference. LeBron James was instrumental in the victory, dropping 18 points with five rebounds and five assists as a game-high plus-13.
Monday’s win felt different, though, than the rest of the wins in L.A.’s recent 9-1 stretch. They weren’t able to score at will the way they’ve done recently. But they leaned on their defense — a unit that ranks sixth in the league since Feb. 28 — holding the Rockets to 92 points in the winning effort.
James, who has played in the most postseason games in NBA history, likened the victory to a playoff win given the way the offense struggled and the defense came through, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s kind of like playoff basketball, it’s gonna happen. So two playoff teams just figuring out how to get a bucket, but also staying focused and locked in on both sides of the floor. That’s sometimes how playoff basketball is, you can’t just rely on the offensive end, you’ve gotta be able to buckle down and get stops.”
One of the biggest criticisms of this Lakers team for much of the season was that their defense wouldn’t be able to buckle down when games tightened in the playoffs. High-octane offense and poor defense is typically a combination that gets exposed in the postseason.
However, Monday’s win was perhaps a sign that this team has more to offer in the playoffs than many realized. If they can defense like this against high-quality opponents like the Rockets, their ceiling becomes infinitely higher.
The victory also helped L.A. gain a bit of breathing room for the No. 3 seed in the conference, with the win streak coming at the exact right time in the season.
JJ Redick praises Lakers’ second-half defense vs. Rockets
The second half of Monday’s game is where the Lakers really took over defensively. L.A. trailed 57-51 at the half, but held Houston to 35 points in the final 24 minutes, including only 12 points in the fourth quarter. That was the focus of head coach JJ Redick’s praise after the game.
He applauded the team for their second-half defense and the way they executed the adjustments coming out of the halftime break on Kevin Durant and the Rockets.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
