The Los Angeles Lakers have been rolling as of late, winning five straight games, including some against Western Conference contenders.
They had a chance to keep that going on Monday night when they hit the road for the start of a six-game road trip, taking on the Houston Rockets in the first of two straight matchups. The Lakers and Rockets and vying for the third seed in the West, making this an important game for both teams, and ultimately, it was L.A. that extended its winning streak with a 100-92 victory.
It wasn’t a great start for the Lakers as Kevin Durant got the Rockets out to a 9-4 lead. Austin Reaves then found LeBron James for a dunk in transition though, and then Luka Doncic got going to immediately respond with a 9-2 run for the Lakers to take their first lead.
Doncic has been on a tear lately, winning Western Conference Player of the Week, and he continued that with 16 first quarter points to give his team a 29-28 lead going into the second.
Jake LaRavia was making a big impact early in the second quarter with his hustle plays, but the Lakers otherwise went cold offensively. The Rockets are the best offensive rebounding team in the league, and they were exploiting L.A. in that department to regain the lead, punishing them inside with their physicality.
With the Lakers falling down by three, Marcus Smart hit a triple to get them back on track after a timeout. From there though, it was a poor close to the half as James had a pair of turnovers while Durant and Jabari Smith Jr. took advantage to give the Rockets a 57-51 lead going into the locker room.
Matching Houston’s physicality continued to be an issue to begin the second half as the home team quickly extended its lead to double digits. Before things got out of hand though, James hit a triple and then Doncic ripped off five straight points. Durant was then called for a Flagrant 1 foul on a push-off on Reaves and all of a sudden the Lakers were back within two.
L.A. finally began to lock in from there, getting stops and scoring in transition to take the lead back at 83-80 at the end of the third.
Both teams were ice cold to begin the fourth quarter. The Lakers were blitzing Durant nearly every possession and the Rockets couldn’t figure out what to do, but L.A. couldn’t capitalize on the other end so the game remained tight.
Houston’s only offense was attacking the offensive glass, and the Lakers finally got some offense of their own to go up by three with two minutes to play.
While the fourth quarter was an ugly one, the Lakers came up big down the stretch to close it out as Smart hit a triple and then Ayton had back-to-back buckets.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers will wrap up their season series against the Rockets on Wednesday night in Houston once again. The tiebreaker will be at stake in that one since they have split the first two matchups.
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