HOUSTON — LeBron James called it “unacceptable,” a brutal self-assessment that described not just his effort, but a team-wide collapse at Toyota Center on Sunday night.
Twenty-three turnovers, eight of them the 41 year old’s own while he added just 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting, turned what could have been a series sweep over the Houston Rockets into a meandering mess in a 115-96 defeat that’ll bring Game 5 back to Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
The Lakers shot 5 for 22 from beyond the arc, struggling to initiate offense as the combination of Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart struggled for the first time together, combining for just 16 points. Along with James, they failed to make a 3-pointer.
“Defense wasn’t our problem tonight – it was our offense,” James said. “We made sure we turned the ball over 23 times for 30 points.”
As James spoke, a drink fell out of the fridge next to his locker. He peered down to the floor before looking up at the crowd in front of him and continued to speak.
“Another turnover right there,” James said. “24.”
The Lakers still lead the series 3-1 and might have Austin Reaves – who was a late scratch after going through pregame warmups for the second consecutive game Sunday – back in the lineup for Game 5 on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena.
Sluggish. Disjointed. Out-energized. However Game 4 goes into the history books for the Lakers, the competitive fire they played with in the first three games of the series – when they held a halftime lead in each game – was more like a dimly-lit plastic candle on Sunday.
Even Deandre Ayton, who led the Lakers with 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 25-minute double-double, couldn’t weather a full-game effort. With 5:41 left in the third quarter and already trailing by 19 points after a poor shooting start to the second half, Ayton struck Rockets center Alperen Sengun with an errant elbow while attempting to play post defense.
“I was really just trying to brace for the contact with Sengun and we both are sweaty guys,” Ayton said. “I just slipped off his shoulder. My elbow hit him right there above the shoulder. It looked crazy on camera, but I’m not no guy who is a dirty player or who plays like that.”
Ayton was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and immediately ejected from the game – clearly surprised from the ruling, the first ejection of his career, he exited to “Hit the Road Jack” while Durant waved from the Rockets bench – and the Lakers stumbled their way to the final buzzer.
Lakers guard Marcus Smart called Ayton’s ejection, “some BS,” adding that he was proud that Ayton took the moment on the chin and didn’t react negatively to the incident. Rockets coach Ime Udoka and Sengun both said they didn’t feel that Ayton was malicious in nature with his elbow.
“He’s got such a sweet, kind soul,” Redick said. “I don’t think DA would ever do anything malicious.”
Ayton had been the only consistent scoring option for the Lakers’ offense – a glimmer on a night that will be remembered as a dud for all the wrong reasons.
The Lakers more closely resembled the version of themselves that lost three games in a row after losing Luka Doncic and Reaves for the rest of the regular season on April 2 in Oklahoma City – Redick admitting postgame that they’re missing ball handling and downhill drivers to initiate offense.
“It’s obviously very challenging without your two leading scores to generate offense,” Redick said. “I think we’ll take a look at the process again on that end as well. And I know our points per shot and our expected points per shot were slightly below our season average. So to me, again, it goes back to the two keys. Take care of the ball, and we’ll look at that, and how we can be better there.”
It might be a little too late for the result to put a dent into what – based on NBA history – is inevitable, but the Rockets finally landed a punch of their own.
No NBA team has ever erased a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, but the Rockets on Sunday night looked more like the team that had been heavily favored to oust the short-handed Lakers before the series began, capitalizing on the plethora of mistakes. Or at least, the Rockets represented a group of players who know their backs are against the wall for the rest of the best-of-seven first-round series.
Playing without injured leading scorer Kevin Durant (ankle) for the third time in the series, all five Rockets starters scored in double figures. Guard Amen Thompson led the Rockets with 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting, Tari Eason added 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting and Sengun had 19 points.
Despite the Lakers winning on the boards for the first time in the series, outrebounding the Rockets 37-35 (Houston won 11-10 on the offensive glass), the Rockets forced their way to the free-throw line for 10 more attempts. Houston also recorded a franchise playoff-high 17 steals.
The Rockets led by nine at halftime and used a 12-4 run to start the third and make it 68-51 with about 8½ minutes to go in the quarter. Reed Sheppard had two 3-pointers in that stretch and Thompson added four points. They led the Lakers by 19 later in the quarter before closing the period on a 9-3 run pushed the lead to 90-65 entering the fourth.
“We’ve been playing our asses off these past three, four games, right?” Smart said. “So, we understand – they came out, they did, like I said, they did their job. So, just bring it back to L.A. and we’ll see them there.”
Redick threw in the proverbial towel with just over seven minutes left, deploying a lineup of the Lakers’ youngest players – Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr., Dalton Knecht and Adou Thiero (who was ejected alongside Rockets guard Aaron Holiday with 1:11 remaining in the game) – alongside veteran big man Maxi Kleber.
James expressed frustration with Thiero’s ejection in his playoffs debut, tangling with Holiday on the play for a pair of technical fouls. Redick said he didn’t receive a “great explanation” from the officiating crew about why his rookie forward was tossed. As the final buzzer blared, the benches cleared at mid-court as the Lakers and Rockets’ tensions raised once more on Sunday – a moment Redick likened to peeking into an altercation happening at a bar on Beale Street in Memphis or Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
“I didn’t know what was happening, so I just kind of walked over there, peeked my head,” Redick said. “Didn’t feel like anything was happening, so we left.”
When asked about the scuffle after the game, Smart had just three words.
“Hilarious,” he said. “Very hilarious.”