The Lakers pulled off an exceptional 124-116 win tonight against the Rockets, courtesy of Luka Doncic and LeBron James combining for 70 points on an efficient night for the 41-year-old.
The Slovenian superstar finished the game with 40 points, 10 assists, and nine rebounds, just one rebound short of a 40-point triple-double. He shot 12-25 from the floor (48.0 FG%) and 7-17 from beyond the arc (41.2 3P%).
Simultaneously, James ended up with 30 points, five rebounds, and two assists on an incredibly efficient night where he shot 13-14 from the field (92.9 FG%) and 2-2 from behind the three-point line (100.0 3P%).
Despite such stellar performance, Alperen Sengun, the Rockets’ All-Star, said the game boiled down to the Rockets’ last-minute decision to change defensive coverage and the Lakers getting lucky.
“I think they made some tough shots, and we kind of changed our coverage. It was kind of the first game that we did it, so [even though] I think we did a pretty good job, we just didn’t get lucky at the end of the game,” said Sengun in his initial comments about the game.
“Getting KD involved in the offense. In the first half, we couldn’t get him the ball. But in the second half, that’s why he’s here, he can score in any position we give him the ball,” Sengun further added on what the Rockets did right in the third quarter to come back from what was once a 13-point lead for the Lakers.
“They’re not going to let him score every time; they’re going to double him, triple-team him, so we’ve just got to make his job easier. Just get him the ball where he can score and is hard to double, and that’s what we did in the third quarter, where he scored 14 points or 16 or whatever.”
“They made a lot of threes today, I think. Tough threes at the end of the game, Rui made some b—–t threes. So it happens, sometimes you get lucky, they just made some tough shots, but we’ll be back next game,” concluded Sengun on what the Lakers did to win tonight.
This seemed like a shot at the Lakers’ performance tonight. The Turkish All-Star had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists in his first game back since being sidelined for two games due to back spasm issues.
He shot 10-15 from the floor (66.0 FG%) and was the key difference in making this game a lot more competitive than their last loss to the Lakers.
But saying that the Lakers won the game due to some “b——t” threes and getting lucky may not leave a good taste in the Lakers’ fans’ mouths. The two sides could potentially meet in the playoffs now as the Lakers have improved to 44-25 following tonight’s win.
They are now 1.5 games ahead of the Timberwolves (43-27), who are in fourth, and 2.5 games ahead of the Rockets (41-27) and the Nuggets (42-28). Therefore, the two teams could realistically face off in the playoffs with less than 15 games left for each team.
While Sengun did not directly address Doncic or James’ performance, it will be interesting to see if the Lakers fire back at Alperen Sengun’s comments on or off the court.
