In perhaps the most injury-riddled playoff matchup of the season last spring, the Los Angeles Lakers dispatched the Houston Rockets in six games. Luka Dončić, Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams did not log a single minute.
Kevin Durant only played one game. Austin Reaves missed the first four games of the series. That’s a lot of pivotal names missing in action.
It was a series defined by understandably erratic, ugly stretches of offense and key players from each side often reduced to fumes by the third
or fourth quarter. Twice, the Rockets and Lakers both failed to crack the century mark. The Rockets did so four times overall in the series while the Lakers did so thrice.
The most famous game — or, infamous, depending on one’s perspective — was Game 3, when Los Angeles mounted a late comeback to force overtime and ultimately take a 3-0 series lead, all but sealing Houston’s 2025-26 fate. In that contest, the Rockets held possession and a 101-95 lead with 34 seconds remaining before committing consecutive turnovers, fouling Marcus Smart on a 3-point attempt and conceding a Luke Kennard game-tying triple.
It was a calamity of errors from Houston, typifying its lack of poise and execution down the stretch of games. According to NBA.com, the Lakers won two of the three “clutch” games in the series and outscored the Rockets by eight points during those 15 “clutch” minutes.
That sort of disparity defined the series and was Alperen Şengün’s takeaway from the matchup when he told reporters during Houston’s media day on Tuesday.
“We played six games. Unfortunately, we only had KD for one game. That was another time for us to grow. Jabari [Smith Jr.], me, Amen [Thompson] taking the leadership because we were the ones playing and having to play against the Lakers, who had a lot of experience,” Şengün said. “LeBron [James], Marcus, Rui [Hachimura], like all of those players have been there and they know, they understand it better. We gave them a really hard time. We beat them in every stat. Just the experience beat us, I would say. They knew what to do. They were calm in the clutch times. That’s what we learned.”
It’s undeniable clutch-time performance helped propel Los Angeles past Houston. And the Rockets did give the Lakers “a really hard time.” Many of those games were close and tense.
Şengün is spot on in those evaluations. The Rockets posted a lower turnover rate and higher offensive rebounding rate than Los Angeles, according to Cleaning the Glass. But they were done in by abysmal shot-making and scoring output, numbers also tracked in the stats department. For instance, the Lakers’ effective field goal percentage was 8.2 percent higher (54.9 vs. 46.7) while their free-throw rate was four points higher (25.5 vs. 21.5).
Late-game blunders helped sink Houston’s ship, yet it did not win “every stat” of that series. To progress its rebuild beyond the first round, it must become a more efficient offense, an aspect not entirely tied to experience and something the Lakers, led by Dončić and Reaves, are hoping they can ride to success out West this season.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
