You can’t fake desperate.
The Rockets have had their season on the line in the last two games, and they’ve played like it. Houston dominated in a blowout win in Game 4 and then came to LA and won a close contest in Game 5.
Now, entering Game 6, it’s the Lakers who have to feel a bit nervous. A 3-0 lead has now shriveled away, and if Los Angeles doesn’t win, then we’ll have a Game 7 and the Lakers would be flirting with the most embarrassing series loss in the history of the sport.
Everyone, including
the players, is well aware of the severity of the situation.
“We got to play desperate,” Marcus Smart said after the Game 5 loss. “Every possession matters for us and we really got to literally go out there and be ready to die. That was it. When I was on the other end, that was our motto…We have to be the desperate team. We know they’re going to come in in their place and be very desperate, very confident and we gotta be able to have to be able to respond in a good way with it.”
Despite how dire things have been for the Lakers, they still have the advantage in this series. They need to win just one game and the Rockets need two victories to end things. LA needs to use that advantage and channel the same desperation and urgency the Rockets have been playing with and get this series over with.
“We got to play like our backs against the wall, right, Smart said. “We knew this was going to be a tough series. I think everybody knew that and it’s turned out to be exactly what we expected. Now the fun begins.”
Smart might have a different view on what’s fun than Lakers fans do, but let’s hope he can have his fun and win this game and the Lakers can spend the rest of the weekend preparing for a second-round series against the Thunder.
While there can clearly be frustration that a sweep has turned into a tight series, at this point, all that matters is getting to that fourth win over the Rockets.
“We don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it,” LeBron James said. “I mean, you can give yourself tonight, a little bit tomorrow, but sh-t, once we get on that plane and head down to Houston, we got to forget about it and understand what we’re going for. It’s going to be even harder, man. Like every game is harder. It’s so hard to close out a team in the postseason to win a series and this is our first time doing it as a unit. We’ll see what we got.”
The time is now for the Lakers to raise their intensity and be the team that closes out their opponent.
The last time Los Angeles has done this was in 2023, so we’ll see if this iteration of the Lakers has what it takes to finish the job.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
