HOUSTON \u2014 It wasn\u2019t the prettiest game.<\/p>\n
And both teams seemingly showed the effects of a late start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But at this point of the season, winning is what matters most, and that\u2019s exactly what the Lakers did in their 100-92 victory over the Rockets at Toyota Center.<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 36 points, six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Luka Doncic shoots as Houston Rockets\u2019 Amen Thompson defends. AP<\/p>\n
LeBron James had 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals. Marcus Smart finished with 11 points, shooting 3-of-7 on 3-pointers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves struggled with his shot (5 of 18) but finished with 15 points, five assists and four steals.<\/p>\n
What it means<\/p>\n
The Lakers improved to 43-25 on the season, not only maintaining their No. 3 spot in the Western Conference standings, but giving themselves a cushion.<\/p>\n
They also pulled off their fourth straight win over a team with a .600-or-better\u00a0 winning percentage.<\/p>\n
Houston Rockets\u2019 Kevin Durant is defended by Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Marcus Smart. AP<\/p>\n
Turning point<\/p>\n
When Tari Eason was called for goaltending on Deandre Ayton with 3:16 left in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The score not only put the Lakers up 89-88, but it was technically their first made basket in eight minutes of game action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lakers closed out the game on a 13-4 run.<\/p>\n
MVP: Luka Doncic<\/p>\n
Doncic had his sixth game scoring at least 30 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic shined once again. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Stat of the game: 15<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how many offensive reboudnds the Rockets grabbed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rockets scored 23 second-chance points off of those extra opportunities, their biggest advantage over the Lakers, who scored 11 second-chance points.<\/p>\n
But the Lakers scored seven more points from the three throw line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Lakers will play the Rockets again on Wednesday at Toyota Center for the second matchup of their six-game trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 It wasn\u2019t the prettiest game. And both teams seemingly showed the effects of a late start.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,160,194,938,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-662235","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-california","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-kevin-durant","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-lakers","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-lalakers","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-losangeleslakers","21":"tag-luka-doncic","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662235","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=662235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}