The gray area concerning the size of the rockets rested off the court. It’s defense quickly erased any height disadvantages.
Kyle Kuzma’s trey trimmed the score, 78-76 with 2:07 left in the third quarter, but that’s as close as the Lakers would get as the Rockets forced 17 turnovers and walked away with a 112-97 victory in game one of the best of seven series in the Western Conference Semifinals at the Bubble in Orlando on Saturday night.
The No. 4 seed Rockets (44-28) scored 27 points off 17 turnovers which made a difference. It blocked shots, pressured the passing lanes, and created steals to keep the Lakers off balance.
“Our defense is going to get us where we want to”, said Harden.
Another shock watched Houston square off on the boards against the bigger Lakers.
James Harden led Houston with 36 points. Russell Westbrook added 24 points, six assists, and nine rebounds. Eric Gordon tacked on 23 points and Austin Rivers scored ten points off the bench.
Harden explained, Its a new game, a new opportunity to get better. We got the shots we wanted. It was a total team effort.
Despite Westbrook’s layup which gave Houston a 78-73 lead, the Lakers’ Kuzma connected on a three-pointer, cutting the deficit, 78-76 with 2:07 left in the third quarter. That would be as close as Los Angeles would get.
Right after, Daniel House left the game for cautionary reasons after taking an accidental blow to the face from teammate P. J. Tucker, who was in act of fighting for a rebound with 1:53 to go in the third quarter.
Though the Rocket’s tallest player stood 6’8”, it had no difficulties guarding 7-footers, Anthony Davis and JaVale McGee.
Davis poured in 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, LeBron James finished with 20 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.
Westbrook’s jumper off the glass concluded the third period with Houston leading, 85-79.
Outside of Westbrook’s three-pointer, Eric Gordon scored the Rockets first eight points of the fourth quarter which helped build a, 97-82 lead with 9:07 to go. And after, the Rockets led by 19 points, 101-82, it’s largest lead of the game with 7:15 remaining.
Danny Green got off to good start in the first quarter, scoring five of the first seven points of the game to aid the Lakers (52-19) on a 7-0 run. Still, before the first time out, the Rockets tied the game at 12 after James Harden matched the seven-point deficit with two, two-point baskets and three straight free throws with 7:36 left in the first quarter. P. J. Tucker drained his first trey and Russell Westbrook banked a rare mid-range jumper over Lakers’ center, Anthony Davis.
Over the next few minutes, still in the first quarter, both teams battled back and forth as the score changed four times before Houston led, 20-16 highlighted by Harden’s three-pointer from the top of the key.
Right after, with 3:54 remaining in the first quarter, Davis connected on two foul shots and Alex Caruso turned a fastbreak into two points to knot the game at 20.
With both teams blowing up the scoreboard, the Rockets led, 29-28 at the end of the first quarter.
The top seed in the West, found the Rockets scoring pace a daunting task. Trailing most of the game, James and Davis scored baskets to tie or draw close to Houston but never established a lengthy scoring-run to overtake the Rockets.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel mentioned, we’re not an excuse team. We’ve got to come out and compete to win a game. This game is behind us. We lost it. We’ve got to move on to Game 2.
Austin Rivers’ back-to-back treys with 10:20 left in the second quarter increased the Rockets lead, 35-28.
But once again Caruso led the Lakers back by netting a pair of free throws and knocking down a trey to make the score, 36-34. That prompted a Rockets timeout with 9:48 left in the second quarter.
As the quarter advanced the action picked up. Robert Covington stroked a three-pointer to increase Houston’s lead, 39-34. Following, the competitive nature of James led him as he threw down a Tomahawk dunk with Westbrook in his wake. The basket drew a foul as James made good on the and one. The Lakers trailed 39-37.
Then the scoring see-sawed until Rajon Rondo, who recovered from surgery to his right thumb and suffered back spasms, returned to the Lakers for the first time since March 10th, scored on a fastbreak layup, tying the game at 52 with 3:44 left in the second quarter.
Over the finals minutes of the first half, Harden and Westbrook scored 11 points to put the Rockets up, 63-55 entering intermission.
The two teams will meet again in game 2 on Sunday at 7:30 P.M.
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