The Lakers’ dream of a sweep in the opening-round series against the Rockets came crashing down on Sunday in Houston, as everything that had seemed to go right in the first three games, all won by the Lakers, pretty much fell apart in Game 4. The Lakers could not score, notching only 96 points. LeBron James looked 41, as he went for 10 points on just 2-for-9 shooting. The stellar role-playing duo of Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard both put up lemons, going 3-for-8 from the field each, with Smart scoring nine points and Kennard seven.
The Lakers had a whopping 23 turnovers on the night, and even if they had been shooting well, they likely would not have overcome that. Houston outscored the Lakers, 34-18, in the third quarter to build a 25-point lead heading into the fourth, which means the final 115-96 score was closer than the game actually was.
“If we want to win this series, we have to protect the ball and we have to defensive rebound and we have to be able to obviously bring that toughness which we did tonight,” James said. “I’m not worried about that. But the turnovers obviously killed us from start to finish.”
Lakers Set for Game 5 on Wednesday on ESPN
Per Ryan Ward of Heavy and Lakers on SI, the league has set the date and time for its Game 5. “Per Lakers: SCHEDULE UPDATE: Game 5 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets is set for Wednesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. PT and will be televised by ESPN,” Ward wrote on Twitter/X.
On the bright side, that will give the Lakers a chance to regroup on Monday and Tuesday, and close out the series at home–perhaps with Austin Reaves back on the floor, just in time.
Reaves was close to a return in both Game 3 and Games 4 in Houston, but the Lakers ultimately decided not to play him. Reaves has been out since April 2 with an oblique muscle injury, and was a late scratch on Sunday.
Just before Reaves was ruled out for Game 4, Lakers coach JJ Redick had discussed his status. Per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin “On a conference call with reporters, Lakers coach JJ Redick says Austin Reaves is going to get up shots this afternoon at the arena. The Lakers will update Reaves’ status for Game 4 at 5 p.m.”
Getting Austin Reaves Back Would Be a Major Break
With the pending Reaves return, coach JJ Redick is hopeful that some of the Lakers’ difficulties on the offensive end will be masked over. The team is still a ways away from getting Luka Doncic to return, but Reaves will be the ballhandler they need.
He said, “I think that’s the biggest challenge we have. Just ballhandling and downhill drivers. Not having those guys.”
As for the turnovers, Redick did say that Houston deserves some credit for forcing them.
“This is a Top 10 defense the entire season,” he sadded. “It’s obviously very challenging without your two leading scorers to generate offense. I think we will take a look at the process again on that end as well. I know our points per shot and our expected points per shot were slightly below our season average. So, I think it goes back to the two keys—take care of the ball and we’ll look at that and how we can get better there.”
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