HOUSTON (AP) — Leading by six with under 30 seconds to go, the Houston Rockets were on the verge of their first victory against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Instead, they fell apart and eventually lost 112-108 in overtime on Friday night and are on the brink of elimination in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.
“Horrendous mistakes,” coach Ime Udoka said. “I don’t know if you want to say youth or scared of the moment, or whatever the case.”
Even with Kevin Durant out for a second game in this series — this time with a sprained ankle after missing Game 1 with a knee injury — the Rockets were in position to close out the game after LeBron James had consecutive turnovers that Houston turned into a 101-95 lead.
It was then that everything went wrong for the Rockets. Marcus Smart was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 25 seconds to go in the fourth after a Houston turnover and made all three free throws to get the Lakers within three.
James then stole the ball from Reed Sheppard and his 3-pointer tied it at 101-all with 13 seconds to go in the fourth.
“It was a stupid turnover,” Sheppard said. “(Alperen Sengun’s) man came up. I should have hit Alpie right over halfcourt and just made the simple play. I tried to split the two defenders.”
The Rockets had a chance to take the lead after that, but Sengun’s 7-footer was off. James grabbed the rebound and called a timeout. He caught the inbounds pass and had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but his 3-point attempt bounced off the rim to send it to OT.
Houston struggled at times to close out games in the fourth quarter during the season and the problem continued Friday night.
“It’s obviously a weakness of ours to close out and finish,” Udoka said. “The amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes are egregious and you can’t have those.”
This is the second straight playoff trip for the Rockets after they returned last season for the first time since 2020. They were eliminated in the first round in seven games by Golden State.
With that playoff experience under their belts, Udoka doesn’t see any excuse for their collapse Friday night and had a message for his team going forward.
“Grow up,” he said he told them. “You’re not that young anymore.”
Sengun, who led the Rockets with 33 points and 16 rebounds Friday night, said they must find a way to move on as they prepare for Game 4 on Sunday night in Houston.
“We’ll be upset tonight. That’s for sure,” he said. “But we’ve got to get over it. Nobody’s giving up.”
It's unclear if Durant will return Sunday to help them stave off elimination.
“Up in the air,” Udoka said. “I think we made some progress in the last few days, but we’ll see how that (goes) with only one day in between.”
Udoka made the Rockets watch the last 30 seconds of regulation immediately after the game to try and help his players learn from their mistakes. Then he told them to start looking forward.
“Now you've got to go get one on Sunday and don’t let this one beat you twice,” he said.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
