Lakers get Austin Reaves back but fail to close out Rockets in Game 5

LOS ANGELES — Austin Reaves slammed the ball up and down in the key, waiting for the whistle before his return from an almost month-long absence became official during the first quarter on Wednesday night.

The Crypto.com Arena crowd welcomed Reaves, who had been out with a left oblique strain since April 2, with a roaring ovation when he was announced as entering the game.

But as the night drifted on, the Lakers reverted to their tendencies from Game 4 on Sunday: turnovers, and a lack of offensive production stunting their route to victory. Reaves couldn’t help them avoid a repeat defeat in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets.

The fourth-seeded Lakers used an 11-1 run to cut a 13-point margin to three in the final minutes, but they couldn’t get any closer in a 99-93 loss, coming up short in their second straight chance to oust the fifth-seeded Rockets and losing for just the second time in 16 home games since February.

Game 6 is Friday night in Houston, with a Game 7, if necessary, back in L.A. on Sunday. No team has ever recovered from an 0-3 deficit to win an NBA playoff series. Only four of the 159 teams to start a series down 0-3 have ever even forced a Game 7.

“We knew this was going to be a tough series,” said veteran guard Marcus Smart, who committed a season-high six of the Lakers’ 15 turnovers. “I think everybody knew that, and it’s turning out to be exactly what we expected.

“And now, the fun begins,” he added.

LeBron James scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half and finished with seven assists, fueling the late surge as they tried to crawl back into the game. The four-time league MVP – who shot 9 for 20 from the field (0 for 6 from 3-point range) – fought his way to the free-throw line for a pair to cut the Rockets’ lead to 11 before grabbing the ball after a Josh Okogie 3-point miss and turning on the jets for a fast-break layup to get the Lakers within single digits. Deandre Ayton and James then made back-to-back layups after Rockets forward Tari Eason split a pair of free throws, trimming the margin to 88-85 with 2:59 remaining.

But then the turnover bug struck the Lakers once more. After Reed Sheppard made a mid-range jumper over Ayton, the Rockets guard ripped the ball away from James – just James’ second turnover of the game – for a dunk at the other end to push the Houston lead back to seven points with 2:20 left and Houston turned four consecutive free throws into a 96-87 advantage with 1:32 remaining.

“We come down, I turn the ball over and put them up seven,” James said when asked where the comeback effort fell short. “Just bang-bang plays.”

A layup and a pair of free throws from Reaves and a putback dunk from Ayton after James and Reaves missed 3-point shots got the Lakers within three points once more with 22.3 seconds left, but Rockets guard Amen Thompson made one free throw and James missed another 3-point look with 12 seconds left before Smith made two more free throws to ice it.

Reaves scored more than half of his 22 points at the free-throw line (12) on a 4-for-16 shooting night from the field, and added six assists in 34 minutes off the bench. Reaves said he was frustrated with the amount of “easy looks” he missed Wednesday, a note multiple Lakers players repeated after the loss.

“I mean I haven’t played in a month, unfortunately,” Reaves said. “I wish I could get a little bit more of a rhythm before jumping into the fire like that. … I got a little tired in the second half, but something I got to push through. I don’t have the liberty to play a couple warm-up games. I just get tossed back in the fire on Friday and hopefully we’ll have a better result.”

Ayton was efficient again, picking up a second consecutive double-double (18 points, 17 rebounds), but Luke Kennard, who scored 50 points in the first two games of the series, scored just one point on 0-for-4 shooting.

The Lakers led by as much as 11 in the first half, but the Rockets shot 6 for 12 from 3-point range in the second quarter, when they scored nine points off of five Laker turnovers and outscored the hosts by 11 points. Ayton said that the Lakers deflated themselves with missed shots, affecting their energy on both sides of the court.

“You hear the ‘Awwww’ in the crowd, the deflation in the crowd, so it probably got to us,” Ayton said. “We definitely weren’t tired, but the shots that we wanted to make at home, in a closeout game, it was a little disappointing and it showed in our energy.”

Thompson played nearly every minute for the Rockets, and the defensive-minded guard, a 21.6% 3-point shooter during the regular season, made two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter for a 10-point lead with just over 10 minutes remaining. Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr., who has picked up some of the slack with leading scorer Kevin Durant (ankle bone bruise) sidelined for four of the first five games in the series, followed Thompson with a 3-pointer of his own for an 82-69 lead, their largest of the night. They led 87-74 with 5:55 to play before the Lakers went on their run.

Smith finished with a team-high 22 points, while Thompson added 15. And while the Lakers were able to limit Rockets center Alperen Sengun for much of the night, the two-time All-Star offset his 14 points with nine rebounds and eight assists. Houston forward Tari Eason added 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

The Rockets shot particularly poorly while losing the series’ first two games in L.A., but they’ve rediscovered their touch while running a balanced offense in Durant’s absence. Houston has played with the confidence exemplified by Smith, who on Tuesday said the Rockets were “obviously the better team” despite what was then a 3-1 series deficit.

“The game is won in between the four lines,” James said when asked about Smith’s quote. “I don’t give a damn. Who cares? Of course you say it. What would you say, ‘Oh, we’re not the better team.’ … Ask one of them young guys that question. I’m too old for that (expletive).”

Smart and Reaves each scored 11 points in the first half, but the Rockets held Smart scoreless in the second half. The Lakers shot 7 for 27 from 3-point range, while the Rockets outscored them by 21 points from the perimeter on 14-for-40 shooting. Despite the loss, the Lakers outshot the Rockets (76-75 attempts) for the first time in the series.

“You hope 99 is enough to win and we just couldn’t make shots,” Redick said. “Missed some layups. Certainly had some good looks from three that didn’t go down. We’ll take a look at the whole process … and figure out where we can be better in Game 6.”