NBA Playoffs : LeBron James, Lakers run past Rockets for 3-1 series lead in western conference semifinals

On Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers team just did what was promised from LeBron and co. Arriving into Game 4 as the favourites, they didn’t let down lakers fans. They beat the Houston Rockets, 110-100 to 3-1 up in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The Lakers were commanding throughout the game and dominate the Rockets in the early game. In Game 1, they were tied for the rebounds despite their height advantage over the small-ball Rockets, but in-game 4 they destroyed them on the board game. 

LeBron James led his team off the glass and had a game-high 15 rebounds. A couple of Lakers players with double-digit rebounds were Davis and rondo with 12 and 10 respectively.

HIGHLIGHTS: @AntDavis23 leads the way with 29 points and 12 rebounds in the #LakersWin pic.twitter.com/RfspFRZ32p

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) September 11, 2020

Throughout the game, the Lakers walk over the Rockets in defensive and offensive plays. At one point, Lakers were up by 23 points. But in the last eight minutes, they were a bit too comfortable. With 7 minutes on the clock, the Lakers were leading 101-78. Then the Rockets started getting turnovers from lakers and made 2 important 3s pull up by Westbrook. With 1 minute left to go in regular time, the Rockets made the score 105-100 and were closing in the late game.

“We had too many turnovers,” Davis said of the late scare.

“I had two. We gave them easy looks, they made threes … we’ve got to be better closing out games.”

On the whole, though, Davis was happy with what he saw from his team: “We did a good job defending the three and taking them out of their rhythm. We made it tough for James, we made it tough for Russ, made it tough for EG (Eric Gordon).

“We’ve got to be better towards the end of the game, but for the most part, you know, for 45 minutes of the game, we executed our game plan.”

3-1 up now, the Lakers will be looking forward to finishing off business on Saturday. They have made easy work of the James Harden and co. so far. But now in the next round, they are most likely going to play their city rivals Clippers, who are also one of the favourites to win the NBA Championship this season.

Game leaders

LA Lakers

• Points: Anthony Davis – 29 
• Assists: LeBron James – 9
• Rebounds: LeBron James – 15

Houston Rockets

• Points: Russell Westbrook – 25
• Assists: James Harden – 7
• Rebounds: J. Green – 7

Game 5 will be played on Sunday, September 13.