By Oliver Carter
The Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 99-93 in game five of their western conference first round matchup at Crypto.com Arena in LA on Wednesday night.
Game five was an important win for the Rockets, while they still trail the series 3-2.
Story of the game
Houston came out on top in Game 5 with a 99-93 road win led by Jabari Smith Jr, and the rest of the Rockets shared the scoring with five players all scoring 12 or more points.
The Lakers took control early pushing all the way out to a double-digit lead late in the first quarter, before the Rockets rallied and took the lead midway through the second before never giving the lead back.
The Lakers had a late 11-1 run as they attempted to pull the game back in the fourth quarter but they had already let the game slip too far.
No team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit but each win is a step in the right direction for the Rockets as they try to salvage their season.
The Lakers’ supporting cast decline
LeBron James led the game in scoring with 25 points alongside seven assists and two steals.
However, the impact of Luke Kennard – who helped massively in the Lakers’ wins in the series so far – has diminished massively in the two losses.
Kennard averaged 21.3 points across Games 1, 2 and 3, before only managing seven points in Game 4 – dropping all the way down to just one point in Game 5 as he shot 0/4 from the field with the only point coming from one made free-throw in the third quarter.
This game also marked Austin Reaves’ return from injury as he contributed 22 points on just 25% shooting, 4/16 from the field, 2/8 from three with a lot of trips to the free throw line where he was 12/13.
Houston sharing the wealth
The Rockets’ Game 5 win was marked by five players all in double digits, a mark they also hit in the Game 4 victory.
This shows that the Rockets work best as an offensive unit as opposed to playing through a star – a style of play they can only fall into when Kevin Durant isn’t a part of the line-up.
Smith Jr led the team with 22 points, seven rebounds and two blocks alongside Alperen Sengun who was all over the stat sheet with 14 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block.
Ausar Thompson added 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals, Tari Eason ended with 18 points and Reed Sheppard with 12 points and six assists.
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