not hard to anticipate<\/a> that the Rockets could benefit from Reaves\u2019 return as well. The Rockets were 7.0 points per 100 possessions offensively with Reaves on the floor in his 34 minutes, with NBA Advanced Stats (dis)crediting Reaves with allowing more field goals made (7 of 13) than any other Laker in Game 5. Reaves struggled to find his game \u2014 he was 4-of-16 shooting, had three turnovers through three quarters and missed 6 of 8 3-point attempts. Still, he got to the free-throw line, where he had 12 of his 22 points.<\/p>\n\u201cI thought he was aggressive, did a nice job of driving,\u201d Redick said of Reaves\u2019 comeback. \u201cHe\u2019ll find his rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reaves\u2019 reintroduction may have had a domino effect on others, too. Kennard went from back-to-back 20-point games to begin the series to failing to make a single shot in Game 5, scoring one point in 31 minutes. In Game 5, he had only 27 touches, after averaging 59.8 touches per game in the first four games of this series, per Second Spectrum. Bronny James went from outscoring the Rockets bench by himself in Game 3 to not playing at all for the first time in more than five weeks. Jarred Vanderbilt was the ninth man in what turned out to be an 8 1\/2-man rotation, getting blocked into the shadow realm by Jabari Smith Jr. in the first half and never getting into the game after halftime.<\/p>\n
And the Rockets took advantage of it. Houston has won the \u201cmiddle eight\u201d minutes all series. Houston\u2019s improvement over the course of this series has not been curbed by the Lakers. The Rockets have led for the entire second halves of Games 4 and 5. The Lakers built double-digit first-half leads in all four games of this series that were played with multiple days of rest. In Games 4 and 5, the Rockets controlled the second halves. Game 5 was the first time Houston went from down double-digits to up double-digits, running through the tape and winning a clutch-time game in the process.<\/p>\n
Now the series shifts from execution to belief.<\/p>\n
Houston has already had every single storyline thrown its way, from Kevin Durant\u2019s injury to a Game 3 meltdown and head coach Ime Udoka identifying how soft and scared his players were. Udoka has no choice but to roll with his young players due to Durant\u2019s ankle injury, and they have responded.<\/p>\n
Jabari Smith Jr. has taken it upon himself to lead with his voice, proclaiming that his team is better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care who we play, I don\u2019t care what team I\u2019m on,\u201d Smith said after leading the Rockets with 22 points, two blocks and four 3s in Game 5. \u201cIt\u2019s just a mindset. But you got to get on the court and prove it. You can\u2019t just say it, and then come out and tuck your tail. You got to go out there fighting and do the things that it takes to win. So I\u2019m going to stand on that statement and we just got to keep proving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are the Rockets now. They\u2019ve been here before. Last postseason, they forced a Game 7 after going down 3-1, only to fall short on their home floor. Now they return with something more dangerous: confidence and momentum.<\/p>\n
Game 6 strips away everything the Lakers had in Game 5 \u2014 home court, \u00a0two days of rest (and stew over a blowout loss) and control of the series. Redick has seen what happens when a team assumes it will get another chance. He\u2019s lived it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Game 6 will be about whether the Lakers can finish it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 When Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick met with the media after Tuesday\u2019s practice,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[5050,1055,355,99],"class_list":["post-617204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-houston-rockets","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}