Not a lot went wrong for the Los Angeles Lakers in their impressive 107-98 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their first-round series at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday. The Lakers led for much of the night and eventually cruised to victory, despite both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves being out with injuries.
LeBron James was a big reason the Lakers came away with the win, but while he did a lot right, he also managed to annoy Rui Hachimura at one point. About midway through the third quarter, Hachimura attempted a lob pass toward James that was deflected out of bounds, and the latter then proceeded to yell at the former.
LeBron was YELLING at Rui and Rui was NOT having it 👀 pic.twitter.com/TUe3NWTagp
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) April 19, 2026
Hachimura clearly didn’t think he did anything wrong there. James appeared to want a bounce pass as he had sealed Amen Thompson. That was going to be a difficult pass to make for Hachimura, though, with Josh Okogie right in front of him. He chose to play it safe, and all Thompson could do there was deflect it out of bounds.
It wasn’t a terrible pass, but Hachimura getting yelled at during Lakers games is tradition at this point. It has happened so many times by now.
Hachimura can frustrate at times, but he has proven to be a solid, reliable role player for the Lakers for years now after they acquired him from the Washington Wizards in January 2023. Here against the Rockets, the 28-year-old had 14 points (6-10 FG), two rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. Those defensive contributions are definitely what stand out.
Hachimura played his part in the Lakers’ managing to shut down the Rockets’ offense in Kevin Durant’s absence. The visitors shot just 35-93 (37.6%) from the field and 11-33 (33.3%) from beyond the arc.
According to ESPN Insights, of those 93 field goal attempts, 32 were contested by Hachimura or Deandre Ayton. Only nine of them went in. It was always going to take that kind of effort on defense to win this game.
As for the offensive end, James helped take care of that for the Lakers. The 41-year-old had 19 points (9-15 FG), eight rebounds, 13 assists, two steals, and one block. James ran the show exceptionally well and got a lot of help on that end from Luke Kennard.
Kennard had 27 points (9-13 FG), four rebounds, and three assists against the Rockets. That’s a new career-high for points in the playoffs, and the timing couldn’t have been any better.
The Lakers have now crucially gone up 1-0 and will look to put some pressure on the Rockets with another win next time out. Game 2 is at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET.
