The Lakers' second-half rally was cut short in the final moments by the Rockets as offensive rebounds and second-chance points haunted Los Angeles in its first loss of the new year on Sunday.
The 119-115 loss to Houston drops the Lakers record to 20-15 and 8-10 on the road this season.
The Lakers would go on to give up 18 offensive rebounds, which led to 28 second-chance points to the Rockets. A discrepancy that hurt L.A.'s climb from down 22 points.
“Our inability to get defensive rebounds was the difference in the game,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said.
Here are some takeaways from the Lakers loss in Houston:
Slow Defensive Start
A solid back-and-forth start in Houston had a 17-15 Lakers lead midway in the first quarter. Until a red-hot shooting display from Rockets Jalen Green, who hit seven of his first eight shots, led to him having 18 points in the first quarter—four points less than the Lakers had as a team in the opening quarter (22).
Green finished with a game-high 33 points in 32 minutes played.
The slow start put the Lakers in a large hole early, down 36-22 going into the second quarter.
The Rockets' hot start would carry over into the second quarter, reaching their biggest lead (22) of the game after holding the Lakers to zero second-chance points (eight total) and fast break points (two total) at halftime.
The Lakers surrendered 67 points in the first half while scoring 49 points.
Up-and-Down Second Half
The complete opposite followed for the Lakers in the second half, outscoring the Rockets 21-8 to start the third quarter behind four 3-pointers—one being a one-footer—from LeBron James, who scored 14 points in the quarter to rally L.A. back in the Toyota Center.
James finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists in 36 minutes.
The Lakers would outscore Houston 40-24 in the third, climbing back from down 22 points to a two-point deficit (91-89) going into the fourth quarter.
The Lakers went with a small-ball lineup to start the fourth quarter, putting James at the center against Houston’s Steven Adams. Adams and Amen Thompson hurt L.A. on the glass most of the game, with Adams (7) and Thompson (6) accounting for 13 offensive rebounds.
Thompson finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds.
The Rockets would start the quarter on an 8-0 run until Davis returned to the game to keep L.A. on an even keel.
Final Moments
After a James layup, the Lakers would get their final chance down three, 118-115, with 7.1 seconds left after fouling Houston’s big man Alperen Şengün, who split his free throws.
The Lakers, who had one timeout left, would turn the ball over on the inbound to potentially tie it as Max Christie, who was the inbounder, elected to force a pass to James close to a five-second violation. The forced pass got undercut by Houston’s Fred VanVleet for the steal.
On the replay, James visibly called a timeout while Christie had the ball, but the in-bound official was looking at Christie the whole time as James hand signaled for the final timeout.
On the following Lakers possession, down four (119-115), they would get a James three waved off on an illegal screen from Anthony Davis, who finished with a team-high 30 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks.
This is the 15th game—out of 33 games—this season Davis has scored 30 or more points.
Next Game
The Lakers will remain on the road for their next game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday (4:30 p.m.). The Mavs are currently on a four-game losing streak as they've battled without all-star Luka Dončić since Dec. 27 with a left calf strain.
After their road game in Dallas, the Lakers will play in Los Angeles in the next eight games—one of those games (Jan. 19) is technically on the road against the Clippers, a short trek to Inglewood in the new Intuit Arena.
