{"id":247851,"date":"2026-04-13T17:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247851\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:54:10","slug":"how-do-lakers-match-up-against-houston-rockets-in-the-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/247851\/","title":{"rendered":"How do Lakers match up against Houston Rockets in the NBA playoffs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n

The Lakers<\/a> got a taste of a playoff atmosphere against the Houston Rockets only a month ago. They can recreate the moment again, this time with real postseason stakes, but the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference will be missing a key component from those thrilling wins.<\/p>\n

Luka Doncic<\/a>, still getting specialized treatment in Europe for his Grade 2 left hamstring strain, is a long shot to return during the first round of the playoffs, which begin Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

Between Doncic and Austin Reaves<\/a>, who is out with a Grade 2 left oblique strain, the Lakers have lost their two leading scorers and an average of 56.8 points per game. They lost the No. 3 seed. But by finishing the season with three consecutive wins to maintain home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, they haven\u2019t lost their fight.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll need it against the Rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playoffs, to me, are all about resiliency,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick<\/a> said. \u201c… You\u2019re playing one opponent in the playoffs and there\u2019s a bunch of things that are gonna happen, some good, some bad. You may get down in a series. You may get down in the game, you may get down in the game on the road. And just, you have to play with resiliency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the teams match up:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> The Lakers got a taste of a playoff atmosphere against the Houston Rockets only a month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[94211,74094,4459,56,58,57,4854,23004,4646,94210,94213,94212,342,94208,21919,94209,32337,37469],"class_list":{"0":"post-247851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-apg","9":"tag-defensive-rating","10":"tag-game","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-news","14":"tag-houston-rockets","15":"tag-lakers","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-nba-playoff","18":"tag-net-rating","19":"tag-offensive-rating","20":"tag-point","21":"tag-ppg","22":"tag-rebound","23":"tag-rpg","24":"tag-sengun","25":"tag-turnover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}