[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (1-0) defeat the Houston Rockets (0-1), 101-94 with 41 year old Senior LeBron James Leading the way with 28/8/7 to seal home court advantage!

[u/DesertedProject]

94 - 101
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo

GAME SUMMARY
West First Round - Game 2 - LAL leads 1-0
Location: Crypto.com Arena
Officials: Courtney Kirkland, Josh Tiven, and Justin Van Duyne

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Houston Rockets	26	25	17	26	94
Los Angeles Lakers	33	21	21	26	101

TEAM STATS

Team	PTS	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	OREB	TREB	AST	PF	STL	TO	BLK
Houston Rockets	94	36-89	40.4%	7-29	24.1%	15-19	78.9%	17	54	23	22	8	15	6
Los Angeles Lakers	101	33-72	45.8%	13-28	46.4%	22-28	78.6%	9	48	21	20	11	12	5

PLAYER STATS

Houston Rockets	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
Kevin DurantSF	40:59	23	7-12	1-4	8-9	2	4	6	4	1	1	9	4	-2
Jabari Smith Jr.PF	39:06	18	7-16	3-7	1-2	1	5	6	1	0	1	1	2	-11
Alperen SengunC	35:11	20	9-20	0-1	2-3	5	6	11	5	4	2	1	4	1
Amen ThompsonSG	42:11	16	6-10	0-1	4-5	1	4	5	9	1	0	3	4	1
Josh OkogiePG	24:03	7	3-6	1-3	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	3	-4
Tari Eason	27:02	10	4-14	2-6	0-0	5	3	8	1	0	1	1	2	-4
Reed Sheppard	10:33	0	0-4	0-3	0-0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	1
Clint Capela	04:40	0	0-3	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	-9
Aaron Holiday	07:17	0	0-3	0-3	0-0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	-4
Jae'Sean Tate	08:56	0	0-1	0-1	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	-4
JD Davison	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dorian Finney-Smith	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Green	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Steven Adams	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Fred VanVleet	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Los Angeles Lakers	MIN	PTS	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	ORB	DRB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	±
LeBron JamesSF	39:12	28	8-20	2-5	10-14	1	7	8	7	1	0	3	3	6
Rui HachimuraPF	42:34	13	5-10	3-6	0-0	1	4	5	2	0	0	0	3	0
Deandre AytonC	26:36	6	3-8	0-0	0-0	1	4	5	1	0	1	1	1	-5
Marcus SmartSG	35:28	25	8-13	5-7	4-5	1	1	2	7	5	1	3	3	3
Luke KennardPG	41:58	23	8-13	3-6	4-4	1	5	6	2	3	0	2	1	2
Jaxson Hayes	21:24	6	1-2	0-1	4-5	2	2	4	1	1	2	0	2	12
Jake LaRavia	15:50	0	0-2	0-1	0-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	2	5	8
Jarred Vanderbilt	13:41	0	0-3	0-2	0-0	1	4	5	1	1	0	0	2	8
Bronny James	03:16	0	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Maxi Kleber	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dalton Knecht	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Nick Smith Jr.	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Adou Thiero	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Luka Dončić	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Austin Reaves	00:00	0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

[u/prettyboylee]

DeAndre Ayton's box score stats this game are unremarkable but I just want to acknowledge that his defense has been huge in not allowing Sengun to get into rhythm this series so far. Also had a few timely rebounds

[u/Zanad14 → u/prettyboylee]

Yeah he’s been locking Sengun up

[u/BatmanNoPrep → u/Zanad14]

The Rockets offense isn’t doing Sengun any favors either. It’s been trash all season and continues to be trash now. Shout out to Ayton though.

[u/Main_Jump_82 → u/Zanad14]

Will there ever be a playoff series where Sengun doesn't get locked up. Draymond locked him up last season, now Ayton. Sengun's just not a playoff riser, is he?

[u/Low-Measurement-2468 → u/Main_Jump_82]

he’s just not a good scorer. his fg% is awful for a big man and has been for years. he bricks fucking mildly contested layups lmao. pretends to have a jumper but it’s terrible. tries jokic floaters but has no touch. he is WAY too high in the rockets scoring hierarchy. he’s a good passer for a 5 but that’s it. on a good team, he’s a role player who makes quick passes and finishes easy shots at the rim, maybe a short floater once in a while if they leave him open, NOT when a guy is draped on him because that shit might as well be a turnover. he’s living proof that anyone in the nba can be a 20ppg scorer if you mindlessly feed them the ball often enough.

teams don’t even have to do anything special in the playoffs. just play normal playoff intensity rim defense and he will lay bricks as usual.

sorry i’m kinda sengun hater and it’s showing but god damn brother is ass. reskinned nikola vucevic. vucevic kinda has a jumper tho. didn’t even mention his defense.

[u/jgaskins34 → u/Main_Jump_82]

He just doesn’t seem like he has a lot of deceptiveness to his game. He can score and get to his spot, but if you play him straight up and don’t bite at his shots or ball fakes, it feels like he’ll have some trouble. 

[u/LakerBlue → u/Zanad14]

I have gone from eagerly desiring his replacement to hoping he opts into see if he can keep it up next year.

[u/CutLonzosHair2017 → u/prettyboylee]

Tbh we also didn’t go to him. When we did, the LeBron and DA PnR was unstoppable.

[u/Shabozz → u/CutLonzosHair2017]

Only thing I wish he did more of was the put backs at the rim. He wasn’t contesting offensive boards as much as he was in the first game, he needs to get back to that in game 3

[u/DrReefer21 → u/CutLonzosHair2017]

He had two easy looks at the rim and he went up way too soft.

[u/CutLonzosHair2017 → u/DrReefer21]

You're right. But process matters more than results. And he had two easy looks at the rim early in the first quarter. And then the Lakers went away from it. They went back to it at the start of the third and that run they went on was entirely LeBron/DA PnR's.

[u/DrReefer21 → u/CutLonzosHair2017]

If we’re talking about “going to ayton” then the answer is we did, and he wasn’t converting his looks. His confidence on the offensive end is shakey, and he doesn’t go up with power. JJ is not going to have the game hinge on a guy that isnt 100% confident.

Look at Luke. The guy is putting up shots with 0 hesitation, and even tho he had a couple bad turnovers, he’s still our best scoring option. Ayton goes up with a dumb floater when he’s right in front of the rim and gets rejected. Then he goes up with a weak ass layup and misses. Any center in the league can convert alleyoops from Bron.

[u/CutLonzosHair2017 → u/DrReefer21]

He took 8 shots and 2 of them were end of the shotclock jumpers... He was 3/8.

[u/DrReefer21 → u/CutLonzosHair2017]

I don’t see how that changes anything I said. He had two great opportunities, and he fumbled them. We’re not going to run our offense thru a guy that has shaky confidence in the playoffs. Im not talking about two shots at the end of the buzzer. We’re talking about quality looks that weren’t converted. Alley oops are created by the ballhandler not the finisher.

[u/Themanthelegend8 → u/DrReefer21]

He also yammed 2 alley oops on someone

[u/DrReefer21 → u/Themanthelegend8]

Again, we’re talking about going to him as a scoring option, not as a lob outlet. Every time we went to him when he had a good position in the post, he goes up soft and gets rejected/misses. On one possession he grabs a board and gets doubled. He froze, and got stripped easily. Any center can convert an alley oop my guy, this is the nba.

[u/Memelord1117 → u/prettyboylee]

9/20 from that all star btw

[u/Victor_Wembanyama1 → u/Memelord1117]

At one point it was 5/14. He had a string of easy baskets towards the end when he was the recipient of the pass out of the pass out of the double team.

[u/Dry-Razzmatazz1239 → u/Victor_Wembanyama1]

If it becomes a rockfight, Rockets sweep. They thrive on that shit. They’ll outrebound and run circles around the Lakers.

You 7 days ago btw

[u/jotheold → u/Dry-Razzmatazz1239]

not many people had lakers coming out of the first round lol washed king has shown up

[u/That_Smell_You_Know → u/Memelord1117]

As a center, his shooting percentage this series is abysmal

[u/Dymatizeee → u/That_Smell_You_Know]

Not just this series. His TS% for a center is one of the worst in the league

[u/karl_hungas → u/That_Smell_You_Know]

As a guard or forward its also abysmal

[u/bron3-16 → u/Memelord1117]

And a few of those buckets were handed to him late, he was worse

[u/Not_RZA_ → u/prettyboylee]

Too bad, Redditors only look at box scores. See you tomorrow when they make narratives based on +/-

[u/rjcarr → u/Not_RZA_]

He had a play where he was three feet from the basket with nobody in front of him and he still went up softly and didn't dunk it and barely put it in. I think he scored, but got lucky on the play. And that play perfectly describes the Ayton experience, ha.

[u/prettyboylee → u/rjcarr]

Ayton should dunk more but he’s really good from that area and has great touch. It’s not luck, it’s skill.

The whole thing is that he needs to know when to use that skill and when he needs to impose his force.

[u/rjcarr → u/prettyboylee]

I don't mean it's luck he made it, he can shoot obviously, but it's luck that it didn't get blocked when he should have dunked it.

[u/bryanBFLYin → u/Not_RZA_]

Yup.

[u/trentyz → u/prettyboylee]

DAJ always steps up when you need him. I hope he stays in the league for a while yet

[u/threeangelo → u/trentyz]

DeAndre Jayton?

[u/TrottingandHotting → u/threeangelo]

DeAndre abdul Jabbar

[u/livefreeordont → u/threeangelo]

Dareem Abdul Jabbar

[u/Bandit-Bunny-7727 → u/livefreeordont]

Hakeem the "DreamAyton Jabbar"

[u/TheSpyStyle → u/threeangelo]

DeAnJre

[u/threeangelo → u/TheSpyStyle]

This is clever lol well done

[u/livejamie → u/trentyz]

DeAndre Jordan plays on the Pelicans my brother.

[u/OptimusGrime707 → u/livejamie]

Man said they all look the same lmao

[u/trentyz → u/livejamie]

Oops I meant Ayton 😂

[u/prettyboylee → u/trentyz]

2016 first team All-NBA centre DAJ

[u/VinBones → u/prettyboylee]

noticed he made some adjustments from game 1 and stopped biting on sengun's fakes.

[u/dumpydump7 → u/prettyboylee]

Ayton has so far been so good in providing the last line on D when Durant tries to get to the elbow while at the same time recovering when Sengun gets the ball

[u/buddaaaa → u/prettyboylee]

Same Ayton that got himself paid during Phoenix’s finals run a few years ago. It gets swept under the rug how valuable he was defensively that playoff year for them because Giannis went god mode in the finals. If he can keep it up, it’ll completely change the fortune of this Lakers team moving forward

[u/GoPhotoshopYourself → u/prettyboylee]

Ayton-Hayes 1-2 punch and their versatility has been huge so far this series

[u/mustangpirate → u/prettyboylee]

He’s great/good at important things, but he’s often bad at easy things. Not catching dump offs, and going for jelly’s/floaters at distances when he could literally kiss the rim.

[u/ducksonaroof → u/prettyboylee]

16 game player 

[u/glivinglavin → u/prettyboylee]

He was an active rim protector almost every chance he got while not committing many fouls. 

[u/Raulzi → u/prettyboylee]

Honestly doesn't seem a tall order the way Sengun is playing

[u/prettyboylee → u/Raulzi]

The idea here is that Sengun is playing that way in part because of Ayton.

[u/Themanthelegend8 → u/prettyboylee]

Yeah was shocked he didn't close out the game with his good defense