The injury-plagued Los Angeles Lakers have won Game 1 of the NBA playoffs against the Houston Rockets. In the 107:98 win against the Houston Rockets, the team led by LeBron James also benefited from the absence of Kevin Durant due to injury.
Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury in training and the superstar was sorely missed, as the Rockets only shot a meagre 37.6 percent from the field. The visitors’ top scorer was Alperen Sengün with 19 points (6/19 FG), eight rebounds and six assists, while Tari Eason contributed 16 points (7/7) and ten rebounds from the bench.
The Lakers had their own problems with the absence of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, but the starting five was convincing in unison. LeBron James (19, 9/15, 8 rebounds, 13 assists) was the only remaining star to scrape a triple-double, while Luke Kennard shone with a playoff career best of 27 points. The marksman had only arrived from Atlanta in a trade in February and made all five of his threes against Houston.
As a team, the Lakers shot a strong 60.6 percent from the field and that was necessary, as they gave the ball away 20 times and conceded a whopping 23 offensive rebounds (23:6 second chance points). The visitors hit the basket 93 times over 48 minutes, whereas L.A. only managed 66 attempts and still won quite clearly.
Lakers’ defense gets the better of Houston
The Lakers were in front most of the time, extending their lead to 16 points at times in the fourth quarter. All of the Lakers’ starters scored in double figures and Bronny James was even allowed to play for almost four minutes at times in the second quarter. Maxi Kleber, on the other hand, was again not used.
The Lakers did well in defense in particular, cleverly closing down the zone so that Houston had to take a lot of difficult shots. As a result, the visitors shot just 41 percent in the zone and were rarely able to produce their dreaded fast-break game.
Houston will have to hope for Durant, and it could help that Game 2 will not take place until Wednesday night in Los Angeles at 4:30 a.m. German time.