The Los Angeles Lakers punched their ticket to the second round of the playoffs as LeBron James led them to a Game 6 victory over the Houston Rockets to close out their first-round series.
The Lakers will now take on the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, but they will have some time to rest first as the series doesn’t kick off until Tuesday. Game 1 would have been on Sunday, but there are two Eastern Conference first-round Game 7s on that day, so the league decided to give the Lakers and Thunder some rest before the second round.
With that being the case, James thanked RJ Barrett as his game-winner forced a Game 7 between the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, giving the Lakers a couple of extra days off.
LeBron said it himself… them rims different
RJ just proved it again 😤 pic.twitter.com/Y9DWVD4sOF— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 2, 2026
This is an interesting turn of events as James terrorized the Raptors for years when he was a member of the Cavaliers. Now, he is celebrating them beating his former team so he can get some time to rest and get back to full strength before taking on the tough task of beating the Thunder.
Sunday would have been a quick turnaround for the Lakers and especially the 41-year-old James as he has been open about any rest being good for him at his age.
James also said he will use his time off to play some golf, recharging mentally as well.
LeBron James celebrating small victories
Earlier in his career, James would not have been satisfied with a first round win as the goal always is to compete for and win championships. However, at his age, he has a different perspective as he now is looking to celebrate all of the small victories as his career winds down.
“At this stage of my career, I think I’ve talked about just living in the moment a little bit more and being OK with celebrating the small victories,” James told reporters in Houston after the Game 6 victory.
“I think we should be proud of the way we played, the way we handled this. This is our first time in a playoff series together as a unit and obviously being without our MVP candidate and without AR for the first four games, we had some obstacles obviously.
“And I know they were out a couple of their guys as well. But I thought we answered the call, I thought we answered the challenge. For them to allow me to lead them, that means a lot to me.”
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
