{"id":660487,"date":"2026-03-16T03:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/660487\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:19:12","slug":"lakers-vs-rockets-discussion-injury-report-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/660487\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers vs Rockets Discussion, Injury Report, How To Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After winning every matchup during their five-game homestand, the Lakers (42-25) are back on the road, where they will play two crucial games against the Houston Rockets (41-25). This will be the final matchups between both teams this season.<\/p>\n<p>Start time and TV schedule<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">When: 6:30 p.m. PT, Mar 16<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Watch: Peacock, NBC Sports, Spectrum SportsNet<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If it feels like every Lakers game has been crucial as of late, that\u2019s because it has. LA is just a game above their next opponent. So, the winner of Monday\u2019s contest will automatically claim the third seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/lakers-scores-results\/103555\/lakers-vs-rockets-christmas-recap-box-score-stats-final-lebron-james-austin-reaves-luka-doncic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Rockets embarrassed the Lakers on Christmas Day<\/a>, and LA needs to win both games against Houston if they want to win the season series and own the tiebreaker over them. Fortunately, Los Angeles is playing its best basketball of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Led by the trio of Luka Don\u010di\u0107, LeBron James and Austin Reaves, the Lakers will face a Rockets team that\u2019s built with a ton of size and athleticism. Note that they\u2019re top 10 in the league in both offense and defense and that\u2019s the kind of team the Lakers have had trouble with all season. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if LA, in its current form, can conquer Houston\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On the other side of the ball, the key to stopping the Rockets\u2019 offense is to make sure Kevin Durant \u2014 who is averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game \u2014 isn\u2019t the best player on the floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019ll also be nice if the Lakers can contain Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn to the point that they don\u2019t play to their usual standards. It\u2019s not going to be easy, but that\u2019s basketball at this time of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Let\u2019s see if the Lakers can draw first blood in the first matchup against the Rockets on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After winning every matchup during their five-game homestand, the Lakers (42-25) are back on the road, where they&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,64012,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-660487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers-discussion","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116236699090547802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}