Three takeaways from Lakers 104-98 win over Rockets

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LOS ANGELES — It felt like a playoff game in many ways. It was defensive, grinding, at points feeling more like a throwback to a 2003 game. It certainly wasn’t always pretty.

But it was illuminating.

Monday night, the Lakers beat a Rockets team on the second night of a back-to-back 104-98. While we don’t want to read too much into one game, this one shed some light on these teams heading into the playoffs because of its intensity. Here are my three takeaways.

West playoffs will be bloodbath

We say that every year. We REALLY mean it this year.

This Rockets/Lakers showdown was a perfect example: Two of the top four teams in the West locked in a physical game filled with little chess matches. For example, the Lakers went small with Dorian Finney-Smith as the center to space the floor and pull the Rockets’ bigs out from the paint; the Rockets countered by playing two seven-footers — Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams — to try and overpower the smaller Lakers. And then there was Dillon Brooks trying to get under LeBron James’ skin. Just like old times.

Now imagine all that and more with the added urgency and intensity of the playoffs.

The West is a conference where the current No. 8 seed is 11 games over .500 (43-32), has a top-three defense in the league, and those Clippers feature future Hall of Famers Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. (For comparison, all four teams headed to the play-in in the East are below .500.)

Lakers’ small lineup can defend

When was the last time you saw Luka Doncic hustle like this on defense?

“They emptied the tank on the defensive end,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said, not just of Doncic but his team. It’s that defensive effort that should give Lakers fans hope.

The knock on the Lakers’ chances at a deep playoff run is directly tied to their defense — Austin Reaves and Doncic are below-average defenders who will be targeted in a playoff series, and there’s no traditional big man providing rim protection behind them to clean up the mess.

Except, the Lakers’ defense is thriving anyway (at least when LeBron James is…

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Publish date : 2025-04-01 11:45:00

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