Los Angeles Lakers: Why the Houston Rockets won’t win another game
By Jason Reed
1. The Los Angeles Lakers have taken the Houston Rockets’ best punch and fired back
The Houston Rockets were the better team in Game 1, but I would not say it is because of anything that the Rockets did. Instead, Game 1 was a game where the Lakers, quite frankly, beat themselves.
They looked rusty after a long lay-off and shot terribly from beyond the arc. Just like in the first series, the Lakers just failed to come firing out of the gate in the playoff series and have since righted that ship.
And in the two games following, the Rockets have hit the Lakers with their best punch — they have taken a full swing and landed a powerhouse uppercut and the Lakers ate it like it was a five-dollar footlong and fired back.
Houston was outmatched in the first half of Game 2 and then came out firing in the second half, going on a 14-0 run to start the second half. Some Laker fans would say that is concerning. I say the opposite.
The Rockets are a team that can do that to anyone if the three-ball is hitting. However, things eventually trend back down towards the mean and they are not going to do that over the course of an entire game. The Lakers took that run by the Rockets, didn’t panic and still won the game.
How disheartening is that for the Rockets? Also, the Rockets played the best kind of collective game that they are going to play in Game 3. The role players were not great but Russell Westbrook and James Harden both had solid games.
The Lakers stayed right there with the Rockets all game and then beat them with a fourth-quarter run. The Rockets played their best game and lost by 10. The Lakers have simply looked like the much more talented team.