Los Angeles Lakers: Lessons from the loss to Houston Rockets

The Los Angeles Lakers lost to James Harden and the Houston Rockets. Here are a few lessons from the game.

The Los Angeles Lakers came to Houston on a roll, being tied in the loss column with the Golden State Warriors. Couple that with a Hollywood ending finish defeating the Miami Heat in LeBron James and Dwyane Wade’s last two-step…

Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Lessons from win over Dwyane Wade and Miami Heat

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to defeat Dwyane Wade in his final game against LeBron James. Here are three lessons from the win.

You would think that the Lakers would come in and step on the necks of the Houston Rockets, who have now solidified themselves as the most disappointing team in the Western Conference. Well, that’s why they play the games.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1073425983343013888

The combination of early foul trouble, bad free throw shooting and a whole bunch of James Harden, the Los Angeles Lakers were beaten by the Houston Rockets 126-111. It seems that the Rockets have the Lakers number with their second consecutive win over the Lakers this season.

Los Angeles Lakers lose the Game and a whole lot more!

The Los Angeles Lakers are now 0-2 losing to the Houston 124-115. The game was marred by an ugly fight that will lead to suspensions. Ronald Agers probes!

Thankfully, there was no fight or anything to take the attention and storylines away from a mostly entertaining ball game. The previous game showed many defensive issues that had not been addressed until Tyson Chandler was signed a few weeks later. Plus, the Lakers loss was being blown off with the same “Oh they’ll figure it out” excuse. The same issues the Lakers had in the first game reared its ugly head again in this game. The Rockets cause serious match-up problems that will be covered in detail here.

The Rockets came into this game with the second-worst record in the Western Conference. Thanks to this win, they are now two games out of the eighth spot in the West. What does that mean?

The standings are so tight, the Lakers need to stack up wins to keep pace. In the Western Conference, EVERYBODY has a shot! Well except the Suns.

Before the lessons start, it is important to note that the refereeing was to be kind here…

“Spotty”, umm…”Inconsistent”…”Questionable”. Let’s just say that they missed a couple of calls.

However, the Lakers did not do themselves any favors.

Here are the lessons…