The combination of Luka Doncic and LeBron James was overpowering and enthralling for all to see during the Lakers’ dynamic 124-116 win over the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Wednesday.
Doncic was a rebound shy of a triple-double with 40 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.
James was a force with 30 points, missing just one of his 14 shots and adding five rebounds and two assists.
They were the main reasons why the Lakers extended their winning streak to seven straight games and helped them take the three-game series over the Rockets, 2-1, winning both games here, one on Monday night.
The beauty of the night was when Doncic threw a no-look lob pass to James for a dunk and then when Doncic drilled a three-pointer with 58.4 seconds left for a 120-111 Lakers lead.
Doncic yelled at the crowd and ran down court shaking his head. When the Rockets called a time out, the Lakers bench all ran over to Doncic, hugging him, slapping him and James nudging him for a job very well done.
The Lakers now have a 1-½ game lead over Minnesota for the third seed in the Western Conference.
James was fouled by Jabari Smith Jr. on a break-away layup, forcing him down on the court and holding his right elbow.
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James was awarded two free throws with 5:39 remaining, making one to tie the score at 105-105.
Doncic then took over when James went to the bench for a rest.
Doncic’s jumper gave the Lakers a two-point lead and later his pass to Rui Hachimura for a corner three-pointer gave the Lakers one-point lead after Amen Thompson had scored for the Rockets
Doncic drilled a three-pointer for a 113-109 Lakers lead with 3:12 left.
James had a steal in the first quarter and then threw down a dunk with Alperen Segen chasing him, leading to James to stare at Segun as he ran back down court, drawing cheers from the fans in awe at witnessing the 23-year veteran still making highlight plays at 41.
Early in the second quarter, James gave the fans even more to cheer about, catching a high lob pass from Marcus Smart and throwing down a one-handed dunk to oohs and aahs.
Luka Doncic celebrates after making a three-pointer against the Houston Rockets in the first half. (David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
James wasn’t done, taking a pass from Jake LaRavia and throwing down another dunk later in the second quarter that brought the crowd out of its seats. That play gave the Lakers a 13-point lead.
James was at it again with a tip dunk off an Ayton missed shot late in the second quarter.
By the end of the first half, James had made all eight of his shots and scored 18 points in carrying the Lakers to a 12-point lead after the first 24 minutes of the game.
James was still dizzying while playing in his 1,610th career NBA game, leaving him one shy of the all-time record held by Robert Parish (1,611).
The Lakers not only had to deal with a Rockets team looking for revenge from Monday night’s loss, but also had to contend with a Houston team that got All-Star center Segun back after missing the previous game with low back pain.
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Even more, the Lakers knew that rebounding would be an issue for them just like it was in the first game.
But the Lakers also knew their defense was strong and their offense was powerful.
That was the case in the first quarter, when the Lakers opened a 35-26 lead behind 13 points from Doncic, eight from James and six from Ayton.
Their defense forced the Rockets into four turnovers, two by Kevin Durant.
“I just think regardless of what our coverage is, we just got to do a better job of boxing out, like actually physically boxing out and not just looking at a guy and then turn and look at the ball,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said pregame. “We’ve got to have some contact. That hurt us. We still won scoring-opportunity (points) by seven, I think, because we did such a good job of forcing them into turnovers. And I thought, offensively, when we used our throw-a-heads, we got some really good stuff in transition. (We) missed some threes in transition. Overall, we were 16 points under expected from three. There was segments of the game where I didn’t love what we did offensively, but that’s the nature of playing this team. They’re gonna muck things up.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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