The Los Angeles Lakers were riding a five-game losing streak coming into Tuesday night against the Houston Rockets. Not only were the Lake Show looking for a win to end the losing streak, but the team was looking to start the first leg of a road back-to-back on a good note.
That is exactly what the Lakers did, beating the Rockets 132-123. It is the second-most points that the Lakers have scored in a game this season with the triple-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings being the only game where the Lakers scored more.
It may have seemed like a typical weekday night December NBA game but there definitely were takeaways in the game.
3 big takeaways from the Los Angeles Lakers win over the Houston Rockets:
1. It shouldn’t be this hard to beat the Houston Rockets!
Look, the Los Angeles Lakers got a win. That in upon itself is a blessing with how the team has played in recent games. However, it shouldn’t take all of this for the Lakers to beat a team like the Rockets.
Let’s not forget that the Rockets are the worst team in the Western Conference and if it was not for one hot stretch in November they would be the worst team in the league. Sure, the Lakers are dealing with depth issues but that is not an excuse. The Rockets are a team that started David Nwaba and played him 33 minutes! The Rockets had three players come off the bench in this game.
It took 132 points to beat the Rockets by single digits. Sure, it was a comfortable nine-point win, but the Lakers allowing the Rockets to score 123 points is borderline unacceptable considering the Rockets have the 27th-ranked offensive rating in the league this season.
A win is a win and they all count the same at the end of the day. However, at this point, we need to be focused on the process that is leading to the result, not just the result itself.