{"id":226547,"date":"2026-03-19T06:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226547\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T06:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:21:11","slug":"luka-doncic-40-points-and-lebron-james-30-lead-lakers-to-win-over-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226547\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic (40 points) and LeBron James (30) lead Lakers to win over Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The combination of Luka Doncic and LeBron James was overpowering and enthralling for all to see during the Lakers\u2019 dynamic 124-116 win<\/a> over the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Doncic was masterful with his near triple-double of 40 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he definitely put on a clinic down the stretch,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said. \u201cWhether it was in isolation, versus fires in isolations, versus the shock with (Alperen) Segun, he just got us good offense whether for himself or for his teammates every single time down the floor\u2026.We moved the basketball, so that kind of got us going and then when Luka came back in he was just fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

James was a force with 30 points, five rebounds and two assists.<\/p>\n

He was super efficient, missing just one of his 14 shots and making both of his three-pointers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, he was awesome tonight and I think two, part of the evolution of him on this team has been, particularly in this stretch, it\u2019s just been his patience,\u201d Redick said. \u201cHis patience, knowing he\u2019s going to get the ball and he\u2019s going to have transition opportunities and he\u2019s going to have plays called for him and he\u2019s going to play off-ball and get a corner three\u2026He was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tremendous play of Doncic and James is why the Lakers<\/a> extended their winning streak to seven straight games and helped them take the three-game series over the Rockets, 2-1, winning both games here, one on Monday night.<\/p>\n

And because Doncic and James were clutch down the stretch when the Lakers leaned on them to be clutch, they are the third-place team in the rugged Western Conference<\/a>, holding a 1-\u00bd lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, when you win, everything is easier,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cWinning is fun. So, just the way we play, I think it\u2019s a lot of fun. And that\u2019s what we just do, we win, have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic had 10 points and three assists in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

But the beauty of the night was when Doncic threw a no-look lob pass to James for a dunk and then when Doncic drilled a three-pointer with 58.4 seconds left for a 120-111 Lakers lead.<\/p>\n

Doncic yelled at the crowd and ran down court shaking his head. When the Rockets called a time out, the Lakers bench all ran over to Doncic, hugging him, slapping him and James nudging him for a job very well done.<\/p>\n

Doncic was asked what the fan said to set him off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, some guy. Some guy was talking crazy,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cShowed me his… I don\u2019t know. Nevermind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic speaks several languages, including English and his native Slovenian.<\/p>\n

He was asked what language he spoke when talking to the fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the camera, it was in English,\u201d he said. \u201cI made sure he understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Luka <\/p>\n

Luka Doncic celebrates after making a three-pointer against the Houston Rockets in the first half.<\/p>\n

(David J. Phillip \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

James had a steal in the first quarter and then threw down a dunk with Alperen Segen chasing him, leading to James to stare at Segun as he ran back down court, drawing cheers from the fans in awe at witnessing the 23-year veteran still making highlight plays at 41.<\/p>\n

Early in the second quarter, James gave the fans even more to cheer about, catching a high lob pass from Marcus Smart and throwing down a one-handed dunk to oohs and aahs.<\/p>\n

James wasn\u2019t done, taking a pass from Jake LaRavia and throwing down another dunk later in the second quarter that brought the crowd out of its seats. That play gave the Lakers a 13-point lead.<\/p>\n

James was at it again with a tip dunk off a Deandre Ayton missed shot late in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

By the end of the first half, James had made all eight of his shots and scored 18 points in carrying the Lakers to a 12-point lead after the first 24 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I feel like….\u201d James said after the game. \u2018\u2019Right now. But in the game I felt pretty good. Before the game I didn\u2019t feel that great. I mean, I was yawning and tired and telling myself I was literally, just like talking to myself like, \u2018Come on, here we go. Let\u2019s figure it out. Let\u2019s get through it.\u2019 But I felt pretty good in the game and like I said I\u2019m happy to make a few plays to help our team win.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, it was easy to understand why he felt that way. He had just played in his 1,610th career NBA game, leaving him one shy of the all-time record held by Robert Parish (1,611).<\/p>\n

So, James was asked, where did he find the energy to play 34 minutes and six seconds in such a high-level and intense game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, if I\u2019m in uniform I got to try to see what I can give,\u201d James said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where it stems from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The combination of Luka Doncic and LeBron James was overpowering and enthralling for all to see during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3622,69418,103105,103107,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,7551,317,103106,772,1417,7556,28471,9018,7553],"class_list":["post-226547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-court","tag-dunk","tag-game-lead","tag-highlight-play","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luka-doncic","tag-monday-night","tag-no-look-lob-pass","tag-pass","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-rockets","tag-second","tag-three-pointer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}