LeBron Hyped by Fans as Luka, Lakers Beat Dillon Brooks, Rockets amid Playoff Picture
LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers secured a win with massive playoff implications Monday night, defeating the Houston Rockets 104-98 at home.
With the win, L.A. improved to 46-29 on the season, giving it a two-game lead over the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference.
The Lakers, who have seven games remaining, are also three games up on the seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves and eighth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, which is huge given that the top six seeds avoid the postseason play-in tournament.
No player enjoyed a particularly impressive game offensively on Monday, as Dončić, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent of the Lakers, and Houston's Amen Thompson all finished with exactly 20 points.
LeBron had just 16 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks, but he played lockdown defense against the offensively talented Rockets, which drew a ton of praise on social media:
With eight seconds remaining and the Lakers leading by four, James essentially sealed the victory for L.A. with an emphatic block on Rockets All-Star center Alperen Şengün:
Houston shot just 41.6 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three-point range, and it turned the ball over 15 times in the loss.
Thompson, Şengün and Dillon Brooks were the only Rockets starters who scored in double figures, while Fred VanVleet was limited to seven points on 2-of-14 shooting, and Jalen Green had only nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.
It wasn't a banner night offensively for the Lakers, as they shot just 39.3 percent from the floor, but they did manage to make 16 three-pointers, including a one-legged snipe from James just before the shot clock was set to expire:
Despite being the oldest player in the NBA at 40, James continues to play at a high level, and he is the biggest reason why they're positioned so solidly in the Western Conference playoff race.
His 24.4 points per game represent his lowest scoring average since his rookie year, and he has averaged just 18.7 points per game in six appearances since returning from a groin injury, but LeBron is impacting the game in other ways.
While the NBA's all-time leading scorer has never been named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, he is a six-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection, and he showed why against the Rockets.
Come playoff time, the Lakers may need a bit more out of James offensively to take down the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder or the Denver Nuggets, but if he continues to excel on defense, the Lakers will have a legitimate chance to make a deep run.
