Beyond LeBron James’ individual brilliance and extensive postseason history of carrying teams to heights previously unimagined, perhaps the characteristic most overlooked within these Los Angeles Lakers was their collective ability to overcome obstacles during the regular season.
Even with James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves missing a combined 71 games this season, the Lakers clawed their way to the fourth seed in the Western Conference. As one of the preeminent NBA franchises, Los Angeles has long been renowned for glitz, not grit.
But given the track record of this iteration, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that the Lakers scrapped their way to a 2-0 first-round series lead over the Houston Rockets despite the absences of Doncic and Reaves due to injuries. With the series shifting to Houston for Game 3 on Friday, what has come into clearer focus is the Lakers’ tenacity, and the fact that it should not be overlooked.
“The regular season is not a means of punishment; it’s a means of building resiliency,” Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said. “And I think our group in the aggregate has been an incredibly resilient group. That’s why we have the confidence and belief and certainly the collective competitive spirit that is needed to be on this stage going against a great basketball team in Houston.”
The “great” version of the Rockets that Redick lauded has yet to make an appearance. Seen as prohibitive pre-series favorites with Doncic and Reaves sidelined, the Rockets stumbled over themselves in the series opener with their leading scorer, Kevin Durant, out with a knee injury.
When Durant returned for Game 2, little changed. The Lakers again found offense from Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart, and they generated the defensive might to stymie the Rockets, who, despite being at full strength, were even less efficient from behind the 3-point arc.
Houston likes to hang its hat on its defense, but its woeful offense remains problematic.
“They’re just daring guys to prove it, regardless of our spacing,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Sometimes we’ve been in the proper places, sometimes guys are cutting on top of each other.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a spacing issue. We’ve had really good spacing and gotten the ball to the places (we want) and not made the shot or taken the right one. I think they’re going to dare it regardless of who’s on the court until we prove otherwise.”
Durant committed nine turnovers in Game 2 and scored only three points of his 23 points in the second half. Alperen Sengun, the Rockets’ second-leading scorer during the regular season (20.4 ppg), is shooting just 38.5% from the field in this series. If the Rockets don’t unlock that tandem, this series will end in short order.
“We need to get the advantage when they’re doubling (Durant),” Sengun said. “We’re going to figure it out.”
Now that they are on the doorstep of taking a stranglehold on this series, the Lakers know that they can rely on the others to support James. The experienced players have revealed themselves at critical junctures already this series, and the expectation is that their guidance will continue to lead the way despite the roster attrition and the long odds stacked against them.
“It was brought up, our group trying to lean on LeBron’s otherworldly experience in this league, and, obviously, we’ve had to do that,” Redick said. “And he’s captained our team and led our team.
“But we have four guys that have played in the Finals. All the experience that Smart has had, all the experience that DA (Deandre Ayton) has had, Maxi (Kleber) on the bench — they’ve shared that. Being in big moments for those guys is not a new thing.”
Kennard, a Feb. 5 trade acquisition from Atlanta, leads Los Angeles with a 25.0 scoring average in the first two games, with James at 23.5 and Smart at 20.0.
