LeBron James scored 18 of his 28 points in a runaway first half for the visiting Los Angeles Lakers, who cruised to a 98-78 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday and claimed their Western Conference first-round playoff series in six games.
By virtue of the 4-2 series victory, the Lakers advance to the Western Conference semifinals and will travel to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 on Tuesday.
James added seven rebounds and eight assists to his ledger. Teammate Rui Hachimura put up 21 points, hitting 5 of 7 from the 3-point arc. Austin Reaves, who started for the first time in the series, added 15 points for the Lakers.
“To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of James. “You can argue all you want; I don’t care to postulate on who’s the greatest of all time. He’s one of, if not the greatest of all time, and for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s baffling in some ways.”
Undermined by turnovers throughout the series, the Lakers committed just 11 giveaways while limiting Houston to 35% shooting. The Lakers finished with a 19-8 edge in fastbreak points, made 12 of 28 3-point shots (42.9%) and produced a plus-9 rebounding margin. That included a plus-7 margin in offensive rebounds against the league’s best offensive-rebounding team in the regular season.
“An area we dominate all year and then struggle these last two games, no doubt, especially with the poor shooting,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Give them credit; obviously, it was a focal point for them, and they did a good job there.”
Alperen Sengun paired 17 points with 11 rebounds for the Rockets, who played without leading scorer Kevin Durant for the fifth time in the series. Amen Thompson added 18 points and eight rebounds while Tari Eason tallied 14 points. Reed Sheppard scored 10 points for Houston but missed 15 of 19 shots, including 9 of 10 from 3-point range. Houston finished 5 of 28 (17.9%) from deep.
“In order for us to win, we had to protect the ball, we had to defensive rebound,” James said. “We just had to be physical. Make them take tough shots, make them make tough shots. I thought defensively we came in with a great game plan and we executed that thing to a T.”
The Rockets’ promising bid to rally from a 3-0 series deficit and force a Game 7 in Los Angeles on Sunday fizzled quickly. Sengun gave Houston a 16-11 lead with a hook shot nearly seven minutes into the first quarter, but the Lakers seized control with a 12-0 run.
Reaves ignited the surge with a three-point play while Luke Kennard, Jake LaRavia and Hachimura added treys to lift the Lakers to a 23-16 lead.
The Lakers opened the second with a 9-0 spurt keyed by James, who scored in the post, drilled a 3-pointer and tallied a driving layup.
The Rockets missed their first 11 shots of the second, with Sheppard ending the drought by driving for a layup at the 6:55 mark. After Thompson scored through a foul to cut what had been a 19-point deficit to 11, Lakers center Deandre Ayton sank 1 of 2 free throws and then James assisted on a Hachimura trey before nailing a pull-up 3-pointer that helped the Lakers re carry a 49-31 lead into the intermission.
Los Angeles led by as many as 29 points in the second half.
–Field Level Media
