There was a ton to be cheerful about from the Los Angeles Lakers' impressive 107-98 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their first-round matchup. However, the performance still left plenty of room for growth heading toward a pivotal Game 2 matchup.
Fun fact: 92.7 percent of teams who have taken a 2-0 lead in the NBA Playoffs throughout the league's history have gone on to win the series. Those squads have a record of 433-34. That is why the Lakers holding homecourt and going up 2-0 would give them overwhelming control here.
There were a lot of good takeaways for Los Angeles from the initial meeting between them and Houston. LeBron James looked excellent as the first option. Luke Kennard and the rest of the starters stepped up in a big way. Plus, the Lakers defense held the Rockets to only 37.6 shooting from the field while connecting on 60.6 percent of their own attempts.
With those kind of positives, one would immediately question why the game finished as tight as a nine-point difference between winner and loser. That would be due to all the extra opportunities the Lakers handed the Rockets. It came in the form of turnovers and poor rebounding.
Lakers cannot giftwrap damaging opportunities to the Rockets in Game 2
The Rockets took 27 more shots than the Lakers did in Game 1. That came in large part due to the discrepancy in rebounding. It is not just that Houston won the battle on the glass 44-35, it has a lot to do with how they secured that margin.
21 offensive rebounds — that is what the Lakers gave up to the Rockets. Losing the rebounding battle was one of the main concerns heading into this series for Los Angeles, and they did very little to ease the discomfort in that area.
The Lakers doubled down on keeping their opponent in the game by handing out oven-baked goods as well. They lost the turnover battle 20-13 to the Rockets. Those giveaways created 24 points for Houston to stay afloat.
Los Angeles was a middle of the pack team during the regular season when it came to taking care of the basketball. Their 14.5 turnovers on average was tied for 15th in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns. Bonus fun fact: the last three NBA champions have been top-five in the postseason when it comes to turnovers per game. Winning that battle matters just like the glass does.
Some may think to themselves that if the Lakers can overcome losing in those areas once, they can do it again. There may be some truth to that. However, it took a lot of other things going right (as mentioned above) to secure that Game 1 win in spite of their shortcomings.
JJ Redick is obsessed with basketball, and the Lakers coach cannot have missed how badly his team got outplayed in these two departments. There should definitely be an emphasis on cleaning both of those things up before their next meeting on Tuesday.
Add us as a preferred source on Google