{"id":640699,"date":"2026-04-30T14:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640699\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:17:10","slug":"lebron-james-and-alperen-sengun-clash-during-lakers-narrow-playoff-loss-to-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640699\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James and Alperen Sengun Clash During Lakers’ Narrow Playoff Loss to Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no love lost between Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> superstar LeBron James<\/a> and Houston Rockets<\/a> center Alperen Sengun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rockets extended their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Wednesday, defeating the Lakers 99-93 in Game 5 at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

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Houston has now won two straight after facing elimination and a potential sweep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James led L.A. with 25 points on 9-of-20 shooting, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes.<\/p>\n

Sengun delivered an all-around effort for the Rockets with 14 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and two steals.<\/p>\n

A charged fourth-quarter exchange between the two headlined the night.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) splits the defense of Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28).Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Tempers flared with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter. A frustrated Sengun muttered unpleasantries within earshot of the four-time MVP. James fired back immediately.<\/p>\n

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Cameras caught the exchange live, capturing an animated James as he stepped to the free-throw line. James made his feelings clear, responding to Sengun with noticeable fervor.<\/p>\n

The reference carried weight. In Game 4, Lakers center Deandre Ayton<\/a> received a flagrant foul two ejection for elbowing Sengun in the head. The tension did not arrive<\/a> without context.<\/p>\n

The game was physical and testy from the opening tip. Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> paced Houston with a team-high 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Tari Eason<\/a> added 18 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

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For the Lakers, Austin Reaves<\/a> made a welcome return from an oblique injury, contributing 22 points and six assists. Ayton posted a strong double-double of 18 points and 17 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Both teams entered without their marquee injured stars. Kevin Durant<\/a> missed his fourth game of the series. Luka Doncic<\/a> remained sidelined with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

The absences did nothing to drain the drama. The James-Sengun saga moves to Game 6 on Friday in Houston.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers’ Austin Reaves Makes Sad Admission Amid Injury<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no love lost between Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[23895,64,30097,63,12839,7220,19697,7216,7896,7232,11473,590,85,132328],"class_list":["post-640699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-au","tag-austin-reaves","tag-australia","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-tari-eason"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}