HOUSTON — Leading by six with less than 30 seconds left. Houston Rockets were on the verge of their first win in their first round series against Los Angeles Lakers.
Instead, they eventually separated. Lost 112-108 in overtime on friday night and on the verge of extinction.
“Terrible mistakes,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “I don’t know if you want to say young or scared of this moment, or whatever the case may be.”
also with Kevin Durant Out for the second game in this series – This time after missing Game 1 with a right knee injury due to a sprained left ankle – the Rockets were in position to close out the game Lebron James There were consecutive turnovers that put Houston ahead 101-95.
That’s when everything went wrong for the Rockets. marcus smart Houston was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 25 seconds left in the fourth after a turnover and made all three free throws to bring the Lakers within three.
After this James stole the ball reed shepardAnd his 3-pointer tied it at 101-all with 13 seconds to go in the fourth.
“It was a stupid business,” Shepard said. “[Alperen Sengun‘s] The man came up. I should have hit Alpi straight from half court and played a simple game. “I tried to split two defenders.”
After this the Rockets had a chance to take the lead, but Sengun’s 7-foot shot missed. James grabbed the rebound and called timeout. He caught the inbounds pass and had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but his 3-point attempt bounced off the rim to send it to OT.
Houston has struggled to close out games in the fourth quarter at times during the season, and that problem continued on Friday night.
“Obviously it is our weakness to try and finish it off,” Udoka said. “The amount of mistakes or the type of mistakes is serious, and you can’t do that.”
This is the second consecutive playoff trip for the Rockets after returning last season for the first time since 2020. They were eliminated in the first round by Golden State in seven games.
After that playoff experience, Udoka sees no excuses for his collapse Friday night and he had a message for his team.
“Grow up,” he said, he told them. “You’re not that young anymore.”
Sengun, who led the Rockets with 33 points and 16 rebounds Friday night, said he needs to find a way to move forward in preparation for Game 4 Sunday night in Houston.
“We’re going to be upset tonight. That’s for sure,” he said. “But we have to get through this. No one is giving up.”
It’s unclear whether Durant will return on Sunday to help them avoid elimination.
“Up in the air,” Udoka said. “I think we’ve made some progress in the last few days, but we’ll see how it goes [goes] There’s only one day in between.”
Udoka asked the Rockets to watch the last 30 seconds of regulation immediately after the game to help his players learn from their mistakes. Then, he asked them to start looking forward.
“Now, you’ve got to go get one on Sunday and not let it beat you twice,” he said.
