LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� LeBron James didn’t get overly excited last week when his Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a shocking 3-0 series lead over the Houston Rockets despite playing without their top two scorers.
James also isn’t ready to panic after his Lakers lost their second straight potential clincher Wednesday night, putting them halfway to making an unwanted bit of NBA history.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a lot of time to dwell on it,鈥� James said after the Lakers鈥� first-round series lead dwindled to 3-2 with .
鈥淵ou can give yourself tonight, a little bit of tomorrow, but once we get on that plane and head down to Houston, we鈥檝e got to forget about it and understand what we鈥檙e going for,” he added. “It鈥檚 going to be even harder. Every game is hard. It鈥檚 so hard to close out a team in the postseason, to win a series, and this is our first time doing it as a unit, so we鈥檒l see what we鈥檝e got.鈥�
No NBA team has ever blown a 3-0 playoff series lead. Only four of the 159 teams to get to that point have even allowed a seventh game.
If the Rockets win at home on Friday night, the Lakers will be the fifth team on that list, and they鈥檒l be forced into a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday in Los Angeles.
James had 25 points and seven assists in Game 5, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter 鈥� but he realized he came up short at the biggest moments.
Reed Sheppard ripped the ball out of James’ hands and drove for a key dunk with 2:20 to play after Los Angeles had trimmed the Rockets’ lead from 13 points to three. James then missed two 3-point attempts in the final 30 seconds, capping his 0-for-6 night from distance and allowing Houston to hang on.
鈥淲e have some opportunities to make some shots we didn鈥檛 make,鈥� James said. 鈥淎s much as we鈥檝e got to defend, we鈥檝e also got to score, too. I don鈥檛 think we did that at a good rate, especially in the second and third (quarters).鈥�
Indeed, the Lakers struggled to keep up offensively with the Rockets, who are missing top scorer Kevin Durant. Los Angeles couldn’t come back despite outrebounding the NBA’s top rebounding team, further reflecting their inability to score when it mattered.
This series now resembles what most observers expected when Los Angeles was forced to face Houston without top scorers Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
, but his 22 points on 4-for-16 shooting weren’t enough to overcome the Rockets’ team effort.
鈥淚t helps when shots go in,鈥� Reaves said. 鈥淏ron had three or four in the first half that went in and out. I missed two easy layups. I missed two or three good looks from 3(-point range), one midrange. But you make shots, you miss shots, and we’ll move on to Friday.鈥�
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