Could LeBron James and the Lakers really blow this?

The specific shape of the first-round playoff matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets has changed quite a bit from how we initially expected it to look, for a number of reasons — chief among them, Kevin Durant’s ongoing injury woes and a brutal Game 3 collapse that pushed Ime Udoka’s club to the brink of elimination. The fundamental underpinnings of the matchup, though, remain largely the same: The Rockets are a big, athletic, physical, very good defensive team that should be able to impose its collective point-preventing will on a Lakers squad that, without Luka Dončić and (until Game 5) Austin Reaves, struggles to consistently generate and cash in on good looks.

It didn’t seem that way in the early stages of this series, when the Lakers were getting just enough LeBron James low-post playmaking, just enough complementary-piece shot-making, and just enough help from a defense that was holding the Rockets nearly 12 points per 100 possessions below their regular-season offensive efficiency mark. But if you scratched the surface on that 3-0 lead, it didn’t look quite as commanding as it seemed — and the Lakers don’t look quite as formidable, now that the Rockets have returned serve with a pair of wins that have extended their season, and this series, to Game 6 back in Houston on Friday.

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“As much as we got to defend, you also got to score in this game, too,” James told reporters after Game 5. “I don’t think we did that at a good rate.”

That’s the thing, though: They weren’t scoring at a particularly good rate in the first three games, either.

Entering Game 4, the Lakers were scoring 112.4 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass — a rate that would’ve had them rubbing elbows with the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings in the offensive rankings during the regular season. Over the past two games, that already-bottom-five-caliber output has plunged even deeper into the offensive basement, with L.A. producing just 102.3 points-per-100 in Games 4 and 5.

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That 10-point offensive rating gap is massive — the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/could-lebron-james-and-the-lakers-really-blow-this-211120845.html

Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2026-04-30 21:11:00

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