LOS ANGELES — Yeah, it was welcome back for Lakers guard Austin Reaves on Wednesday night. But it was something less than a triumphant return from injury … and at this point, with the Houston Rockets having created some momentum for themselves and the Lakers suddenly struggling to score, it has to be asked: Are they in trouble?
Those 11 pundits, out of a panel of 12, who picked the Rockets to win this series were taking their lumps just a few days ago when the Lakers were on the verge of sweeping the series. But a 115-96 defeat in Game 4 on Sunday night in Houston quieted that talk. And Wednesday night a 42% shooting night – and 40.7% overall for the final three quarters (22 for 54), including 21% from 3-point land (4 for 19) – led to a 99-93 loss.
And suddenly that Western Conference semifinal series against Oklahoma City seems far from assured, and a Game 7 in downtown L.A. on Sunday has become a more realistic possibility.
You wouldn’t and won’t hear that in the Lakers’ locker room, of course. And, really, a good portion of those misses were shooter’s luck or lack of it, balls that rolled or bounced around the rim and fell out rather than falling in. Even the Rockets shot 44% on Wednesday compared to 48.1% in their 115-96 win on Sunday, but they were 14 for 40 from behind the arc in Game 5.
“You tip your hat off to those guys,” Lakers guard Marcus Smart said. “They made some shots tonight, right, that they probably weren’t making in Games 1, 2 and 3, right? But we understood that. We knew that. We gave ourselves a chance, but we just fell short. And it’s part of it. We got to put this one in the back of our mind and move on to the next one.”
More likely the difference was in the turnover column – 15 for the Lakers, which led to 18 Houston points, including several errors that seemed careless and one sequence early in the fourth quarter at the offensive end in which the ball was flying all over the place.
“It’s hard because the players see stuff on the court, and it’s easier for us to look back on film or armchair quarterback it,” Coach JJ Redick said. “I do think we had two of those turnovers where we get a stop and we throw the ball ahead out of bounds. Those are the kind of ones that you wish you had back.
“The turnovers come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s about limiting them. And you certainly have to give your guys freedom to make basketball plays. I would say in general though, turnovers of aggression are OK; turnovers of passivity are not.”
If there was one overriding positive in Game 5, it was the return of Reaves, who had been out nearly a month with an oblique injury and had been listed as questionable for Games 3 and 4. Wednesday night he was again considered a game-time decision, but looked close to his old self during the pregame warm-up period, and wound up playing 33:42 off the bench with 22 points (4-of-16 shooting from the field but 12 for 13 on free throws), plus six assists and a blocked shot.
Asked before the game if then being up 3-1 in the series would influence whether Reaves played or not, Redick said no.
“And I told Austin that,” he said. “Yeah, I said, ‘Let’s take the context of the series out of it. Because if you’re not confident, you shouldn’t play. If you are confident, then you should play. It’s that simple.”
Obviously he was confident. And as the game went on, Reaves seemed his normal self, though the team’s marksmanship issues afflicted him as well
“I missed a lot of easy looks,” he said. “I mean, it helps when shots go in. I know Bron (LeBron James) had probably three or four in the first half that went in and out. I missed two easy layups, I missed two or three good looks from three, one little mid-range. But you know, you make shots, you miss shots.”
Anyway, just being back on the court under game conditions had to have been a tonic. The atmosphere, the crowd and, yes, the stakes involved perked him up.
“When something you love is taken away from you for four weeks with an injury and then you get, like I said, thrown in the fire in a game like this – I could say I wouldn’t want it any other way, but I kind of do,” he said, adding that he wished he “could get a little bit more of a rhythm before jumping into the fire like that. But like I said, I had a lot of fun out there and just trust myself and trust the work that I’ve put in. You know, it’s hard to emulate real basketball reps, even if you’re doing it – practice, stay-ready (games), whatever it might be – so it’s really hard to get that same feel.
“Just to go back three weeks and six days – (Thursday) will be four weeks – it’s been a grind,” he said. “I’ve been running around Los Angeles doing everything I could possibly do to get back to this moment and we’ve done it. Feels good. I love playing basketball, it’s my happy place, and it was nice to get back out there.”
Only one thing could have made it better. Reaves and his teammates will have an opportunity to take care of that Friday night in Houston.
But keep this in mind: If it weren’t for that miraculous comeback late in regulation in Game 3 that led to a Lakers victory in overtime and a 3-0 series lead, right now the Rockets could have been the ones preparing to clinch on Friday. The Lakers are still ahead in the series, but they’re one step removed from peril.
jalexander@scng.com