Lakers hold the rockets with large nights from the support distribution – Orange County Register

Los Angeles – Upon entering the last two weeks of the season, the Lakers coach, JJ Redick, stressed the importance of his team to build his “mentality of playoffs”.

Kiss the mental, physical and emotional toll which must succeed once the playoffs arrive.

Playing with attention to the details of the match plan which is necessary to beat teams of good times four times in a series of seven games.

Monday evening, it meant the accent put on the defensive rebound against a team from Houston Rockets who entered the match leading the league in the second chance. The Lakers also had to take care of the ball against a team of rockets which is based strongly on transitional opportunities to compensate for their offense in half-terrain.

The Lakers took care of the business in the two regions, which led to a 104-98 victory in the first of the two crucial clashes in 12 days between teams that are among those who are fighting for the advantage of the home field in the first round of the western conference qualifiers.

Luka Doncic led the Lakers (46-29) with 20 points, nine assists and six rebounds.

Gabe Vincent (20 points, four rebounds; six 3 points) and Dorian Finney-Smith (20 points, six rebounds, three assists; six 3 points) combined for 40 of the 46 Lakers bench points when they put the Rockets just their second defeat in the last 14 games.

Most of the 3 points from Finney-Smith came out of Pick-And-Pop with Doncic When Alperen Sangun or Steven Adams kept Finney-Smith, the Lakers targeting the great men on foot of the Rockets to defend in space.

LeBron James (16 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and Austin Reaves (12 points, eight rebounds, three assists) had relatively quieter matches.

Rui Hachimura (seven points on 3 out of 10 shots) bought Airball a late attempt of 3 points by stealing the pass of Dillon Brooks in Sengun in the painting with 46 seconds to play.

James returned the ball to the possession of the lakers that followed, leading to Brooks dividing a pair of free throws to reduce the Houston deficit to 100-98 with 20.1 seconds.

James made a pair of free throws for an advance of four points with 11.1 seconds to do. He had a weak blockage against Sengun on an attempted Dunk with eight seconds to play before Brooks missed a 3 -point attempt with five seconds to do. Finney-Smith caught the rebound and made a pair of free throws with the Rockets intentionally dirty to put the match out of reach.

Amen Thompson led the Rockets (49-27) with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists. Brooks collected 16 points but on 5 of the 14 shots. Sengun finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and six assists, the Lakers effectively limiting its touch in the first half.

In a match that was almost the opposite of the victory on Saturday’s road on the grizzly girls of Memphis, the Lakers and the Rockets lacked offensive rhythm for important songs of the night.

The teams combined to score 35 points in the first quarter, a quarter, the Rockets led 19-16 before the Lakers scored 32 points in the second and 34 in third.

The Lakers, playing their 19th match in 35 days, won despite the 39.3% shot on the field (35 for 89).

Neither of the two teams led by more than eight points overnight, but the Lakers have treated a small lead in the last 17 minutes.

More to come to this story.

Originally published: March 31, 2025 at 9:59 p.m.