The deck was stacked against the Lakers heading into the playoffs, but what awaited them was a tower of cards ready to topple over in the Rockets.
Kevin Durant being a surprise scratch pregame tilted the tower to the brink of falling and the purple and gold made it a mission to finish the job throughout Game 1. It wasn’t a perfect game and there’s room for improvement on both ends, but LA ultimately came out with a win that ended up being fairly comfortable in the second half.
It’s a great start to
the series with tons of encouraging signs for the Lakers. Let’s dive into some of the biggest takeaways from the victory.
A team effort
Coming into the series, the expectation was that LeBron James would need to have a big scoring night for the Lakers to have a real chance. While Durant’s absence alleviated some of that scoring burden, LeBron was certainly not the biggest scoring threat for the Lakers.
That’s not to say he wasn’t fantastic on the night. He had eight assists in the first quarter to set the tone from the jump and still finished with 19 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds. However, all five starters had at least 14 points and each had moments.
No one was bigger offensively than Luke Kennard, who was perfect from three and scored a playoff career-high 27 points. Back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter from Kennard put the Lakers up 16 and allowed them a cushion as they closed out the game.
Deandre Ayton looked like his early-season self and poured in 19 points, including icing the game with an and-one in the final minutes. Rui Hachimura was an efficient 6-10 from the field and hit numerous timely shots. And Marcus Smart mixed in some good in his chaotic night, scoring 15 points with eight assists.
The Lakers shot an astounding 60.6% from the field and 52.6% from three. They nearly shot better from the field than from the free throw line, but that’s a topic for another time.
They jumped ahead early with a fast start in the first quarter. After turning the ball over on the first possession, they had 13 assists before they committed another turnover. While they came in bunches later, LA set the tone from the start as a team, getting sustainable, high quality shots.
Stingy defense
Offense is always going to get the headlines, but the Lakers’ defense was fantastic in this one. Similar to the offense, it was also a team effort.
The Lakers held Houston to 37.6% shooting overall. They hit just 11 of their 33 attempts from range. They committed 13 turnovers and never found any rhythm offensively. The Lakers did a great job clogging the paint and forcing Houston to hit shots from outside.
The Rockets shot 22-53 in the paint, a conversion rate LA will absolutely live with. After some threes early in the game, they locked down Reed Sheppard, who went 6-20 from the field and 5-14 from the three. Amen Thompson (7-18), Alperen Şengün (6-19) and Jabari Smith Jr. (5-14) all had poor nights from the field.
The Lakers have been good defensively for some time now, but they showed it on the biggest stage yet. It wasn’t perfect, but playoff games rarely are. But, importantly, it was more than enough to give them a chance to win.
And on that point about not being perfect…
Turnovers and rebounding
This win was not a case of the Lakers playing a perfect game, either. In fact, the Lakers struggled in the two biggest areas head coach JJ Redick emphasized throughout the week in turnovers and rebounding.
After keeping things under control for much of the first half, offensive rebounding became an issue for LA in the second half. Houston finished with 21 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points. The Rockets stayed in the game in the second half because of their ability to create second and even third chances.
Similarly, turnovers were a problem for the Lakers. They finished with 18 giveaways that Houston turned into 24 points. While admittedly some crude math, nearly half of Houston’s scoring came from those two areas.
It was the nature of the turnovers that were confounding, too. On multiple occasions, the Lakers pushed in transition when they didn’t have numbers and turned the ball over. A number of turnovers were unforced, whether errant passes or passes to teammates who weren’t ready or looking.
The only time LA trailed after the opening minutes came after a disastrous close to the second quarter that included some very untimely turnovers. That the Lakers were able to overcome not just that stretch but generally not taking care of the two biggest areas of emphasis and still win handily should be encouraging about how this team has room to improve even after a win.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
