{"id":287765,"date":"2026-04-27T06:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T06:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T06:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T06:38:09","slug":"turnover-plagued-lakers-fail-to-pull-off-sweep-in-loss-to-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/287765\/","title":{"rendered":"Turnover-plagued Lakers fail to pull off sweep in loss to Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Lakers<\/a> still have control of this first-round series, even after the blow they took from the Houston Rockets on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

As ugly as their 115-96 loss<\/a> was, the Lakers still hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.<\/p>\n

All the Lakers have to do is win Game 5 on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena and they will advance to the second round.<\/p>\n

But they will have to play better than they did in Game 4.<\/p>\n

LeBron James<\/a>, who played a stellar 45 minutes during the Lakers\u2019 overtime win<\/a> Friday night, wasn\u2019t as spry. He had just 10 points, reaching double figures on a floater with 8:37 left and the Lakers down 26.<\/p>\n

He was just two for nine from the field and he had eight turnovers. James also had nine assists and became the first player in NBA history to record 3,000 field goals in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard was quiet with seven points, and Marcus Smart had nine, both on three-for-eight shooting. Rui Hachimura had 13 points on six-for-10 shooting.<\/p>\n

As James iced his knees in the locker room after the game, he said the Lakers can\u2019t afford to underestimate the Rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell naw, there is no such thing as being comfortable until a series is done,\u201d James said. \u201cNaw, none of us are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bigger concern was the Lakers\u2019 inability to take care of the ball. They turned it over 24 times, their most in the series, and they\u2019ve had 20 or more in three of the four games.<\/p>\n

All of Houston\u2019s starters scored in double figures. Amen Thompson had 23 points and seven assists, and Alperen Sengun finished with 19 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n

But it was the Lakers\u2019 miscues that stood out the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we know coming into the series we have to protect the ball and not have too many pick-sixes, which we did all night,\u201d James said. \u201cIt started with me. Obviously my turnovers are unacceptable. But we\u2019ll do a better job with that on Wednesday. We understand that offensive rebounds for them and pick-sixes is not going to be good for our ballclub. You give credit where credit is due. They won the game tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Lakers went down by 17 points in the third quarter on a Thompson basket that was part of Houston\u2019s 12-4 run to open the frame, Lakers coach JJ Redick called a timeout to allow his players to collect themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers star LeBron James drives to the basket over Houston\u2019s Reed Sheppard, left, and Alperen Sengun during the first half Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Karen Warren \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help, as the Lakers\u2019 deficit swelled to 26 points.<\/p>\n

It got harderfor the Lakers when Deandre Ayton was ejected midway through the quarter because of a flagrant foul for his left elbow striking Sengun on the side of the head.<\/p>\n

Ayton was having one of his best games in the playoffs, bouncing back from two quiet efforts to post 19 points and 10 rebounds before he was ejected with 5:41 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really just trying to brace for the contact with Sengun and we both are sweaty guys,\u201d Ayton said. \u201cI just slipped off his shoulder. My elbow hit him right there above the shoulder. It looked crazy on camera, but I\u2019m not no guy who is a dirty player or who plays like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin Reaves shot before the game in an attempt to play for the first time since being injured April 2 at Oklahoma City, and again he was downgraded from questionable to out because of a left oblique muscle strain.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Lakers saw no need to rush Reaves back considering how they had dominated the series. Two days off before Game 5 will give Reaves more time to get healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fair to consider everything,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAustin and I had a conversation yesterday for a long time, and I think ultimately the athlete has to feel confidence, and that\u2019s always the final hurdle coming back from an injury, is the psychological component of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Rockets, Kevin Durant missed his third game of the series because of a bone bruise in his sprained left ankle.<\/p>\n

Lakers point guard Luka Doncic (Grade 2 left hamstring strain) continues to work out on the court, but there\u2019s no timetable for his return.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] was able to move a little bit today on the court, which, you know, most of the stuff had been stand-still,\u201d Redick said. \u201cSo he\u2019s progressing, but no update on any timeline or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Lakers still have control of this first-round series, even after the blow they took from the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6265,19538,20294,29086,123222,423,7006,48,52,51,1415,47,50,49,3289,8841,1417,7556,135,14921,79059],"class_list":["post-287765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assist","tag-austin-reaves","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-double-figure","tag-first-round-series","tag-game","tag-houston-rockets","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-loss","tag-playoff","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-shooting","tag-third-quarter","tag-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287765","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=287765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}