the Lakers beat the Jazz on Sunday night<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Lakers (53-29) have fully turned their attention and focus to the Rockets (52-30), whom they\u2019ll match up against in the first round of the playoffs after finishing fourth and fifth in the Western Conference standings, respectively.<\/p>\n
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers handles the ball while defended by Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets during the game on March 16, 2026 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely\/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Game 1 is on Saturday (5:30 p.m.) at Crypto.com Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rockets finished the regular season sixth in net rating (plus-5.4), while the Lakers finished 14th (plus-1.5).\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re one of six teams that finished the regular season top-10 in both offensive rating (eighth) and defensive rating (sixth), which is typically a good marker for whether a team is a contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouston\u2019s obviously a really, really good basketball team,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to prepare, and we\u2019re going to fight and we\u2019re going to go try to win a series.\u201d<\/p>\n
Redick added: \u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything we can to get our guys in a great frame of mind and great physical shape over the next four or five days and be ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers drives to the basket during the game against the Phoenix Suns on April 10, 2026 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi\/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
An obvious storyline going into the playoff series will be LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant \u2014 a matchup between two of the greatest players of their generation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll mark the fourth time the legendary players meet up in the playoffs, and the first time in a non-NBA Finals series, after James\u2019 Heat beat Durant\u2019s Thunder in the 2012 Finals before Durant\u2019s Warriors beat James\u2019 Cavaliers in the \u201817 and \u201818 Finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the Lakers, the top-of-the-line strategies for their series against the Rockets start with Durant, who\u2019s in line to make his 12th All-NBA team, and Alperen Sengun, who averaged 20.4 points and 6.2 assists in his second All-Star season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the two heads of the snake,\u201d Marcus Smart said. \u201cMaking sure we keep those guys under control. Can\u2019t let those other players get off as well. But the focus is those two guys and just going out there and making it as tough as possible for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockets\u2019 physicality will also be a focus after they led the league in offensive rebounding percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, we know it and these guys know my motto: \u2018The toughest team sets the rule\u2019,\u201d Smart said. \u201cAnd the playoffs are a little bit different. Things are a lot tougher. They let you play a lot more and I think that works to my advantage and our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Durant of the Houston Rockets shoots a three point basket against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second half at Toyota Center on April 09, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the backdrop of the playoff series will be the Lakers being without star guards Luka Doncic (Grade 2 left hamstring strain) and Austin Reaves (Grade 2 left oblique strain) to start the first round \u2013 and probably longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not only will they be without two of their best players and ball handlers, but the spirit of their team took a hit when both suffered their regular season-ending injuries during the April 2 road loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
The Lakers went 3-2 in the five games they closed out the season without their star duo in what was both a mental and emotional test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team needs great spirit and we need our remaining guys to be healthy,\u201d Redick said. \u201cThat was our focus last week. It\u2019s gonna be our focus this week: Building our capacity physically, making sure we don\u2019t do too much, making sure we don\u2019t do too little, making sure we get through the week healthy. And then the spirit, again, creating that belief. We\u2019ve done that with this group over these last few games and we\u2019ve gotta continue that going into Game 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus Smart of the Los Angeles Lakers smiles during the game against the Utah Jazz on April 12, 2026 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi\/NBAE via Getty Images) NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Resiliency has been a common theme for the Lakers in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They hope that remains the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re playing one opponent in the playoffs and there\u2019s a bunch of things that are gonna happen,\u201d Redick said. \u201cSome good, some bad. You may get down in a series. You may get down in the game, you may get down in the game on the road. And just you have to play with resiliency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For six weeks, Lakers coach JJ Redick emphasized that the focus was on his team, not their variety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,160,194,1331,938,185,150,6,11,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-709938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-j-j-redick","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-lebron-james","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-playoffs","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116399934261851729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709938","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=709938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}