{"id":717557,"date":"2026-04-25T06:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:33:16","slug":"james-and-the-lakers-look-to-clinch-series-against-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717557\/","title":{"rendered":"James and the Lakers look to clinch series against Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> (53-29, fourth in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets<\/a> (52-30, fifth in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Houston; Sunday, 9:30 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n

LINE: Rockets -5.5; over\/under is 207<\/p>\n

WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: Lakers lead series 3-0<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: The Los Angeles Lakers look to clinch the series over the Houston Rockets in game four of the Western Conference first round. The Lakers defeated the Rockets 112-108 in overtime in the last matchup on Saturday. LeBron James<\/a> led the Lakers with 29 points, and Alperen Sengun<\/a> led the Rockets with 33.<\/p>\n

The Rockets are 29-23 in Western Conference games. Houston leads the Western Conference in rebounding, averaging 48.1 boards. Sengun leads the Rockets with 8.9 rebounds.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 33-19 in Western Conference play. Los Angeles has an 8-3 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.<\/p>\n

The Rockets score 115.2 points per game, 0.6 more points than the 114.6 the Lakers allow. The Lakers score 6.3 more points per game (116.3) than the Rockets allow their opponents to score (110.0).<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Sengun is averaging 20.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists for the Rockets. Amen Thompson<\/a> is averaging 19.8 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton<\/a> is scoring 12.5 points per game and averaging 8.0 rebounds for the Lakers. Rui Hachimura<\/a> is averaging 2.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Rockets: 6-4, averaging 117.2 points, 47.2 rebounds, 25.7 assists, 8.9 steals and 5.1 blocks per game while shooting 47.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 109.9 points per game.<\/p>\n

Lakers: 7-3, averaging 110.9 points, 39.6 rebounds, 28.7 assists, 10.3 steals and 4.4 blocks per game while shooting 51.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 109.2 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Rockets: Fred VanVleet<\/a>: out for season (acl), Steven Adams<\/a>: out for season (ankle), Kevin Durant<\/a>: day to day (ankle).<\/p>\n

Lakers: Austin Reaves<\/a>: day to day (oblique), Luka Doncic<\/a>: out (hamstring).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive<\/a> and data from Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers (53-29, fourth in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets (52-30, fifth in the Western Conference)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[89406,7,130,194,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-89406","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-lakers","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-lalakers","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangeleslakers","20":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116463953816115355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717557","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=717557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}