{"id":717574,"date":"2026-04-25T07:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717574\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T07:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:04:39","slug":"rockets-lakers-how-lebron-james-is-carrying-l-a-without-luka-doncic-and-austin-reaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717574\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets-Lakers: How LeBron James is carrying L.A. without Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> lost Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a>, their top two scorers during the regular season, just two weeks before the start of the 2026 NBA playoffs<\/a>, it seemed like a fatal blow to their chances of not only contending for the NBA title, but of even making it out of the opening round of the postseason. A 3-2 finish after losing Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves \u2014 with the wins coming over the Warriors<\/a> minus Stephen Curry<\/a>, the Suns minus Devin Booker<\/a>, and the Jazz<\/a> minus an NBA roster \u2014 did little to dispel that notion; a matchup against a tough, physical Houston Rockets<\/a> team with a top-five defense and plenty of youth and athleticism on the wing seemed like one the Lakers wouldn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re doing a hell of a lot more than surviving, taking the first two<\/a> games<\/a> of their opening-round matchup and leaving the Rockets looking overmatched and shell-shocked heading into Game 3 back in Houston on Friday<\/a>. There are plenty of reasons for that: Kevin Durant<\/a> missing Game 1<\/a> and the Lakers haranguing him into nine turnovers in Game 2<\/a>; Luke Kennard<\/a>, Rui Hachimura<\/a> and Marcus Smart<\/a> shooting a combined 19-for-33 (57.6%) from 3-point range through two games<\/a>; Deandre Ayton<\/a> holding Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn to just 5-for-19 shooting<\/a> when they\u2019ve been matched up; etc.<\/p>\n

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One of the biggest ones, though? LeBron James<\/a>, it turns out, still knows how to take the reins of a playoff series and \u2014 even at age 41 \u2014 make sure it\u2019s played on his terms and at his pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all got to pick up our play,\u201d James told reporters<\/a> after the Lakers\u2019 101-94 Game 2 win<\/a>. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got two big guns out like we have, we all got to pick up our play. And that\u2019s all it\u2019s about. We\u2019re all just trying to contribute, make contributions in all facets of the game, pick up our play.\u201d<\/p>\n

One way LeBron\u2019s been picking his up? By posting up.<\/p>\n

As my colleague Tom Haberstroh<\/a> noted on this week\u2019s episode of The Big Number<\/a>, through two games of Lakers-Rockets, James has finished 16 possessions out of the post with either a shot attempt or a foul drawn. According to Synergy Sports tracking data, that is not only more post-ups than any other player (nobody else is even in double-digits); it\u2019s more than every non-Lakers team in the postseason field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Left block, right block or at the nail; Josh Okogie<\/a>, Tari Eason<\/a>, Amen Thompson<\/a>, Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> or Aaron Holiday<\/a>; backing them all the way down to the rim, whipping a pass to a cutting big man, or turning over either shoulder for that patented baseline fadeaway jumper. LeBron\u2019s breaking out every tool in the toolbox \u2014 I guess \u201cevery club in the bag\u201d<\/a> is more appropriate these days \u2014 in search of ways to compromise the Rockets\u2019 defense, draw attention away from the likes of Kennard, Smart, Hachimura, Ayton and Jaxson Hayes<\/a>, and create advantages that allow the Lakers to play on their terms rather than Houston\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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Including plays where he’s passed to a teammate who has shot the ball, the Lakers are scoring 1.053 points per possession on these post-ups, according to Synergy. That\u2019s not elite efficiency; it would\u2019ve ranked 39th among 76 players who logged at least 50 post possessions during the regular season, between Jalen Johnson<\/a> and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe. Considering the Rockets gave up 0.94 points per possession on post-ups and 0.99 points per possession on pass-outs from the post during the regular season, though, it ain\u2019t half-bad. Especially when you factor in that a Lakers team that has struggled with ball security without Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves \u2014 a 19.3% turnover rate<\/a> through two games, third worst in the playoff field, including 21 cough-ups of the more damaging live-ball variety<\/a> \u2014 hasn\u2019t turned it over once on those LeBron post-ups, getting a shot on goal or drawing a foul each time.<\/p>\n

\"LOS<\/p>\n

LeBron James is averaging 23.5 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists through two playoff games. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi\/NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Adam Pantozzi)<\/p>\n

Thanks partly to those methodical trips to the low post, the Lakers have the slowest average time to shoot on offense (14.6 seconds, more than 60% of the shot clock) in the postseason field, according to Inpredictable<\/a>, and have decelerated the pace of their series to 91.8 possessions per 48 minutes \u2014 the slowest series in Round 1 thus far<\/a>. Several series in recent years have operated at a slower pace, mostly featuring teams that already played at a snail\u2019s pace (Joe Mazzulla\u2019s Celtics<\/a>, Tom Thibodeau\u2019s Knicks<\/a>), that revolved around a low-post monster (Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a>, Joel Embiid<\/a>) and\/or that entered the series as an underdog and were adopting the underdog strategy of trying to take the air out of the ball \u2014 limiting the number of offensive possessions their favored opponents had, and with it their ability to build and extend a lead.<\/p>\n

The current iteration of the Lakers check all three boxes: 22nd in pace during the regular season, built around the post game that LeBron has worked tirelessly to hone over the past 15 years<\/a>, and an underdog heading into the series<\/a> based on the absence of two of their three best offensive weapons. Given that, it probably shouldn\u2019t surprise us that James has approached the start of the series by hitting the brakes and dragging the game into the post. After all, he\u2019s been here before.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t just mean that generally and metaphorically, in the sense that over the course of 23 NBA seasons and more than 1,900 games, he\u2019s seen just about every scenario and situation that a player can experience in this league. I mean that he has, specifically, had to figure out how to make do in a playoff series against a younger, longer, more athletic, favored opponent without his two best teammates.<\/p>\n

LeBron James is turning back the clock<\/p>\n

Harken back, if you will, to the long, long ago of June 2015. \u201cMad Max: Fury Road\u201d was blowing minds at the multiplex. People were super into \u201cSee You Again\u201d by Wiz Khalifa, partly because of its inclusion in \u201cFurious 7,\u201d which was blowing minds at the multiplex. There was a huge FIFA corruption scandal<\/a> going on, which I realize doesn\u2019t narrow things down all that much, but stay with me. And LeBron was nearing the end of his first season back in Cleveland<\/a>, where he paired up with Kyrie Irving<\/a> and Kevin Love<\/a> on a Cavaliers<\/a> team that won 53 games and went 12-2 in the Eastern playoffs en route to an NBA Finals matchup with the upstart Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

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Along the way, though, the Cavs lost Love to a dislocated shoulder<\/a> against the Celtics, and then lost Irving to a fractured left kneecap<\/a> in overtime of Game 1 in Oakland. The other four Cavs starters for the rest of that Finals series: Timofey Mozgov<\/a>, Tristan Thompson<\/a>, Iman Shumpert<\/a> and Matthew Dellavedova<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playing without another shot creator, with two plodding\/mauling big men, and two only-kinda-sorta-OK 3-point shooters, James surveyed the scene and saw only one potentially feasible pathway to victory against a Warriors team that had more talent, depth, shooting and speed across the board. The objective: Keep Golden State from running by grinding the game to a glacial pace through mismatch-hunting and bulldozing his way into the post, where he could overpower the Warriors\u2019 smaller defenders, draw defensive attention and set up shooters and cutters, or just create opportunities\u00a0for Thompson and Mozgov to generate second chances.<\/p>\n

It worked \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 for a little while, at least.<\/p>\n

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The Cavs forced the Warriors to play at their pace, though; those six games averaged just over 93 possessions per 48 minutes<\/a>, which is slower than the slowest team in the NBA has played in each of the last nine seasons. And they did that, in part, through James\u2019 control of the game from down low. In that series, including possessions where he passed out of the low block to a teammate who shot the ball, he averaged 9.8 post-ups per game, according to Synergy. (Through two games against Houston: 9.5 such possessions per game.)<\/p>\n

Both teams scored under 100 points in the next two games of that series \u2014 both<\/a> of which<\/a> the Cavs won \u2014 before the Warriors adjusted their plan of attack<\/a>, changed their starting lineup<\/a> for Game 4, and ripped off three straight victories to win the first title<\/a> of what would be a dynastic run.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the Rockets could similarly wrest control of the series back from LeBron as the scene shifts back to Houston. There are some notable differences, though. For one thing, these Rockets (obviously) don\u2019t have the same kind of shooting and offensive firepower as those Warriors, or a supply of high-end two-way players capable of punishing L.A. on both ends of the court. For another, LeBron might actually be getting some reinforcements<\/a> before too long.<\/p>\n

Wherever the series goes from here, though, the Lakers \u2014 halfway to four wins, with home-court advantage still intact \u2014 enter Game 3 firmly in control, due largely to James still being able to set the terms of engagement after all these years. May the f*****y<\/a> never cease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Los Angeles Lakers lost Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves, their top two scorers during the regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[6251,883,1013,7,306,46,305,1586,2292,194,18135,2497,2990,32,423,936,6356,938,1678,304,967,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,1171,326,20167,6,253,1165,1012,573,873,17388,2223,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-717574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-aaron-holiday","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-austin-reaves","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-cavaliers","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-cleveland","15":"tag-deandre-ayton","16":"tag-devin-booker","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-iman-shumpert","19":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","20":"tag-jalen-johnson","21":"tag-jaxson-hayes","22":"tag-jazz","23":"tag-joel-embiid","24":"tag-josh-okogie","25":"tag-kevin-durant","26":"tag-kevin-love","27":"tag-knicks","28":"tag-kyrie-irving","29":"tag-la","30":"tag-la-lakers","31":"tag-lakers","32":"tag-lalakers","33":"tag-lebron-james","34":"tag-los-angeles","35":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","36":"tag-losangeles","37":"tag-losangeleslakers","38":"tag-luka-doncic","39":"tag-luke-kennard","40":"tag-marcus-smart","41":"tag-matthew-dellavedova","42":"tag-nba","43":"tag-nikola-jokic","44":"tag-playoff-series","45":"tag-rui-hachimura","46":"tag-stephen-curry","47":"tag-tari-eason","48":"tag-timofey-mozgov","49":"tag-tristan-thompson","50":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717574","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=717574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}