Rockets Blast Lakers in Game 1

Final Score: HOU 112 LAL 97 - Rockets Lead 1-0

Alright, welcome in to the full recap of this game. The Lakers dropped another Game 1 in these playoffs. But unlike the opening round against Portland, they got dominated this game. An undersized Rockets team dominated and outplayed the much bigger Lakers squad 112-97 to take a 1-0 series lead. Shocking ain't it?

I mentioned it before, extended rest can be a double-edged sword. Prior to this, the Lakers were chilling while the Houston was in a dogfight against OKC in a 7-game series. After looking at this game, I don't think that was a factor. The Lakers jumped to a 7-0 lead before the Rockets upped the sense of urgency this game. I didn't find any signs of rust. The Rockets outplayed them the rest of the way and were the more physical team tonight. 

I said it in the preview: when the tandem of Russell Westbrook and James Harden go off, Houston is hard to beat despite their lack of size. After an atrocious Game 7, Harden was Houston's leading scorer with 36 points on an efficient 12-20 shooting. Westbrook chimed in with 24 points on 10-24 shooting. I told y'all they were going to find ways to be aggressive and draw contact to get to the free throw line. 

To make matters worse, key role players for the Rockets stepped up. Austin Rivers lead Houston's bench with 10 points. He started with 6 quick points to help balloon Houston's lead to 7 at the start of 2nd quarter.  Eric Gordon went off this game with 23 points on 7-14 shooting. The Lakers did a lazy job against him defensively. It's like they completely forgotten that Gordon is quite the scorer as well. I recalled two or three times, the Lakers didn't bother to rotate and Gordon had all day to get set and shoot the wide open three. 

As I mentioned, the Lakers didn't look rusty. But rather, they put up a disappointing effort after a 7-0 start. Turnovers and LeBron and AD combining for just 5 points in the 4th quarter were the major stories this game. They got some reinforcements with Rajon Rondo back in the rotation tonight. Evaluating, Rondo's return, he had a valley, then a peak, then a valley again. Rondo had the case of the "slip and slide" to start. He fell twice or three times when he was handling the ball. It was a tough stretch for him, lucky he got up unscathed. He showed signs with a 3-pointer and a layup off glass. And then, the turnovers mounted up.

Turnovers were close with the Rockets committing 13 turnovers compared to the Lakers' 15. But, the Lakers committed turnovers in the most critical times, especially when they were trailing by two or one. During those sequences, as a Laker fan, all you can do was shake your head. I had my head down the whole time when the Lakers committed these silly turnovers when they needed a bucket to tie or take the lead and get some of the momentum back. This is especially the conundrum when you have Rondo return and pair him with LeBron in the lineup. Rondo had a mixed performance. He pushed the pace well, but played "hot potato" with the basketball in his return. The Rockets made them pay in that category and bombarded them with threes to extend their lead. By the way, Lakers shot 24% from three and the Rockets shot 36% from deep. I did mention the three-point shooting was going to be an X-factor for this series.

Onto the superstar duo, LeBron James provided some highlights with a poster dunk on Westbrook and a chase down block on Westbrook again, but he didn't do a lot more. Anthony Davis as well. AD had 25 points and 14 rebounds while LeBron had 20 points and 7 assists, but these were disappointing stat lines if you looked back at this game. They got punked by Houston's defense tonight. To make matters worse, they didn't score in the 4th quarter until the 4 minute mark. By that time, it was too late and Frank Vogel effectively waved the white flag two minutes later by taking both of them out of the game.

The only positive I could probably take out of this game is that Alex Caruso showed out, leading the bench with 14 points. If there's positive with Rondo returning, Caruso can play off ball more. But other than that, the Lakers dropped the ball on this game. You can't blame rust or the extended rest, they got outplayed on both ends. 

Here's the concerning part: the Lakers are now 0-3 against Houston since the small ball lineup was unveiled back in February. It should be clear that size and length are not just the only thing that's going to take down this team. The Lakers need to do a better job at being the more physical team. And most importantly, they gotta take care of the basketball, especially since Houston likes to run and gun. That's the Mike D'Antoni / 7 seconds or less principle. The silver lining is that when the Lakers dropped the first game against Portland, they came back and won the next four. Will history repeat itself this series? Certainly, but they need to do a better job. I'll see you guys after Game 2 on Sunday.