Lakers win Game 1 with gritty effort against Durant-less Rockets

LOS ANGELES — During the week before their playoff opener against the Houston Rockets, Lakers coach JJ Redick faced repeated queries about what his team would evolve without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

Their six-game runway into the postseason included wins over short-handed squads and the tanking Utah Jazz, hardly results to write home about with playoff basketball looming. Redick admitted that there was a freedom to the expectations suddenly being so low – a permanent-marker selection for playoff predictions among sports-debate broadcasts over the past week.

Luke Kennard embraced the underdog status as the Lakers continue adjusting to what life is like without their high-scoring backcourt duo (who remain out “indefinitely”).

If Saturday night was freeing, a 107-98 victory against a Rockets team that just hours before the game learned it would be without leading scorer Kevin Durant (knee contusion), then maybe, just maybe, these undermanned Lakers have a chance in this best-of-seven first-round series.

A chance to not just battle for an unexpected series result, but maybe to get Doncic back before the series ends. A chance to continue to discover an identity thrust upon them by bad luck on a now-fateful April 2 night in Oklahoma City.

At the heart of those efforts will be Kennard, who fewer than three months after joining the Lakers, has become as much of a cornerstone to their playoff hopes as LeBron James.

Kennard led the Lakers with a playoff career-high 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting (5 for 5 from 3-point range) on Saturday. He made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the last of which gave the Lakers an 88-72 lead with 7:58 left as Doncic, dressed in a white dress shirt and sharing overtly enthusiastic feedback on the bench as part of the high-five committee with Reaves, celebrated Kennard’s return to the huddle by pumping his arms to an ovation from the Crypto.com Arena crowd.

“Since I’ve been here, some guys have been out,” Kennard said. “We haven’t been fully healthy a lot. So just it speaks on the guys in the locker room, staying ready, being ready. Guys stepping up in big moments, making big shots. …

“It’s going to take everybody. We know that. We got to continue to elevate each other and push each other and continue to be a team. And I thought we did that tonight.”

Redick spoke all week about his team “elevating” its play. The Lakers’ starting five understood the task.

“We just showed it,” guard Marcus Smart said. “It was never just one person at a time, right?”

James tied a playoff career-high with 10 assists in the first half alone (eight in the first quarter), and finished the night with 19 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds.

“We all have to pitch in,” James said. “We all have to do our job. And even do a little bit more.”

The 41-year-old jived in his chair in the Lakers’ locker room afterward, cheerfully singing along to Charlie Wilson’s “Charlie, Last Name Wilson” before heading to the podium on a night when he extended his postseason games played record and made history playing alongside his son, Bronny James, in the second quarter.

All of a sudden, James was the last superstar standing.

“There’s a lot of crazy things that have been going on this year for me,” James said when asked about Durant joining Doncic and Reaves on the sidelines. “I was on the floor with my son in a playoff game, that’s probably the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me in my career. … My mom gets to watch her son and her grandson during the playoffs. Now, that’s crazy.”

The Lakers lost the rebounding battle 44-35 (and surrendered 21 offensive boards), but Deandre Ayton proved a force in the paint with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 11 rebounds. Rui Hachimura added 14 points, while Smart helped set the pace with 15 points and eight assists.

“Just thought we were really poised as a team,” Redick said. “We had a great next-play mentality. Wasn’t a perfect game. None of these games are gonna be perfect. Got contributions from a lot of people in a lot of different ways, and made enough winning plays.”

The Lakers got off to a blazing start from the field and finished the night at 60.6% while holding the Rockets to 37.6% shooting with pesky defense. The Rockets struggled for consistent half-court offense, though they surged to cut the Lakers’ 10-point lead to just two by halftime before the Lakers push the margin back to double digits in the third quarter.

Houston’s offensive lapses, a dose of what the Lakers had been trudging through since losing Doncic and Reaves, was understandable. With no Durant, who the Rockets hope will return for Game 2 on Tuesday night, Houston coach Ime Udoka cycled through multiple lineup rotations with mixed results.

“We won a lot of areas, but just shot poorly,” Udoka said. “That’s going to be tough to beat, but there are some things we left on the table, opportunities missed.”

Rockets star center Alperen Sengun had 19 points on just 6-for-19 shooting as Ayton met the All-Star’s physicality.

“He was great,” Redick said of Ayton. “I think he was great on both ends. Again, we’re at our best when he’s playing at a high level.”

Guard Amen Thompson scored 17 points on 7-for-18 shooting in a game-high 43 minutes for the Rockets, while guard Reed Sheppard, who doesn’t start often, had 17 points on 6-for-20 shooting (5 for 14 from 3-point range). Jabari Smith Jr. added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the fifth-seeded Rockets, who finished one game behind the Lakers in the regular season.

Undermanned? Sure.

But when it came to resilience, overcoming 18 turnovers to start the series on a high note – the Lakers proved might on Saturday night. Led by Kennard, the NBA’s most accurate 3-point shooter this season but never pegged to be the star; not someone who was expected to be the X-factor when April began.

As James said, each player has to pitch in and do “a little bit more.” Kennard continued to amplify his Lakers resume, but this time under the playoff lights.

“My word is speechless, to be honest,” Ayton said of Kennard. “Seeing him five-for-five (from behind the arc) in a playoff game as a Laker – yeah, it hits different.”