The last two meetings with the Houston Rockets have brought as many victories for the Los Angeles Lakers. The truth, however, is that the Californians had to sweat the fateful seven shirts to bring home the victory. The Frank Vogel-coached team is now coming off five wins in their last six, for an overall record of 5-3. The Big 3 closed with a total of 84 points, 30 of which scored by LeBron James alone, 27 by Anthony Davis and the same number by Russell Westbrook. The latter commented on the Lakers’ performance in this way:
“That’s the beauty of our team. With AD and Bron on the court, you don’t have to do everything. If these guys are on the court, then you have to give the ball to those who are in their momentum, those who are traveling at a different pace than the others. We play that way – we’re always looking for the right guy.”
Carmelo Anthony also made his contribution by scoring another 15 points, while the rest of the team put up a total of 20 points. Enough to allow the Lakers to score 119 points and get away with it in a game in which the Yellow Jackets defended poorly. Because as Anthony Davis says, if the Lakers can’t stop their opponents, they’re going to have to put in extra effort on offense:
“All their players shot well. Even off the bench. So, hats off to them. The Rockets are a young team: they go on the court and play with a lot of freedom. On Sunday they didn’t manage to score consistently, but tonight they did. On our side, we just try to defend well, as much as we can. And when the opponents score, we immediately go on the counterattack to hurt them.”
