LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James didn't get overly excited last week when his Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a shocking 3-0 series lead over the Houston Rockets despite playing without their top two scorers.
James also isn't ready to panic after his Lakers lost their second straight potential clincher Wednesday night, putting them halfway to making an unwanted bit of NBA history.
“We don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it,” James said after the Lakers’ first-round series lead dwindled to 3-2 with the Rockets’ 99-93 victory.
“You can give yourself tonight, a little bit of tomorrow, but once we get on that plane and head down to Houston, we’ve got to forget about it and understand what we’re going for," he added. "It’s going to be even harder. Every game is hard. It’s so hard to close out a team in the postseason, to win a series, and this is our first time doing it as a unit, so we’ll see what we’ve got.”
No NBA team has ever blown a 3-0 playoff series lead. Only four of the 159 teams to get to that point have even allowed a seventh game.
If the Rockets win at home on Friday night, the Lakers will be the fifth team on that list, and they’ll be forced into a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday in Los Angeles.
James had 25 points and seven assists in Game 5, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter - but he realized he came up short at the biggest moments.
Reed Sheppard ripped the ball out of James' hands and drove for a key dunk with 2:20 to play after Los Angeles had trimmed the Rockets' lead from 13 points to three. James then missed two 3-point attempts in the final 30 seconds, capping his 0-for-6 night from distance and allowing Houston to hang on.
“We have some opportunities to make some shots we didn’t make,” James said. “As much as we’ve got to defend, we’ve also got to score, too. I don’t think we did that at a good rate, especially in the second and third (quarters).”
Indeed, the Lakers struggled to keep up offensively with the Rockets, who are missing top scorer Kevin Durant. Los Angeles couldn't come back despite outrebounding the NBA's top rebounding team, further reflecting their inability to score when it mattered.
This series now resembles what most observers expected when Los Angeles was forced to face Houston without top scorers Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Reaves returned for Game 5, but his 22 points on 4-for-16 shooting weren't enough to overcome the Rockets' team effort.
“It helps when shots go in,” Reaves said. “Bron had three or four in the first half that went in and out. I missed two easy layups. I missed two or three good looks from 3, one midrange. But you make shots, you miss shots, and we'll move on to Friday.”
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