HOUSTON — It might be a little too late for the result to put a dent into what – based on NBA history – is inevitable, but the Houston 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 24 Laker turnovers and rolling to a 115-96 win to stave off a sweep and send the series back to Los Angeles for a Game 5.
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 center Alperen Sengun had 19 points.
The Lakers still lead the series 3-1 and might have Austin Reaves 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.
Ayton was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and immediately ejected from the game – clearly surprised from the ruling, exiting to “Hit the Road Jack” while Durant waved from the Rockets bench – and the Lakers stumbled their way to the final buzzer. Ayton had been the only consistent scoring option for the Lakers’ offense – a glimmer on a night when the team finished 5 for 22 from 3-point range amid the 24 turnovers (the Lakers’ second-highest total of the season).
LeBron James was the only one of their series scoring leaders to reach double figures on Sunday (10 points on 2-for-9 shooting) as 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.
The 41-year-old James, who saved Game 3 with a game-tying 3-pointer with 13 seconds left before the Lakers claimed an overtime victory on Friday, had eight turnovers in back-to-back playoff games for the first time in his career. Both Kennard and Smart shot 3 for 8 from the field, tallying seven and nine points, respectively.
The Lakers had combined to make 35 3-pointers through the first three games, but James was 0 for 3 from long range, Marcus Smart missed both of his attempts and Luke Kennard was 0 for 3.
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.
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.
The Rockets led by 19 later in the quarter before closing the period on a 9-3 run push the lead to 90-65 entering the fourth.
Lakers coach JJ 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.
More to come on this story.