The curse of the NBA regular season is that it’s a month-long slog from city to city, from hotel rooms to hostile arenas, with opposing scouting reports mixing with each other in what can create unrecognizable confusion.
The gift of that 82-game schedule is the tests, the competitive moments in which a team can honestly analyze what it is and what it is not against a worthy opponent.
Sunday, the lakers They gave him a gift.
Playing against a Houston team that swept the Lakers last season due to their size, speed and athleticism, the Lakers had a chance to battle a team just above them in the standings. And it was a fight they almost won.
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Despite being outscored for almost the entire first half, the Lakers played one of their best second halves of the season only to come up short. 119-115.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 22 at the end of the first half and by as many as 20 at the start of the third before Anthony Davis and LeBron James led a wild comeback that ended with the Lakers having a chance to tie the score with 7.2 seconds left. for playing.
James, who was called for an offensive foul earlier in the final minute, scored on a quick layup and grabbed Alperen Sengun’s missed free throw to give the Lakers a chance to tie the score for the first time since the score was 10-all. -10.
But Max Christie couldn’t put the ball inbounds, and James called a timeout that the Lakers didn’t receive. Christie’s pass was intercepted by Fred VanVleet, who sealed the game by making one of two free throws.
Davis led the Lakers with 30 points and 13 rebounds, James and Austin Reaves each had 21 and Christie scored 14. James also had 13 rebounds and Reaves had 10 assists.
Jalen Green, who torched the Lakers early, shut them down in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 33 points.
He standards have been establishedboth because of the Lakers’ recent streak of play and because of the demands that their coach, JJ Redick, has publicly and privately imposed on them.
Well, that’s maybe what the Lakers are here for in the first week of January; great is where they want to be. And if things aren’t done right, Redick has insisted he will find someone to do it.
Less than a minute into the third quarter, Redick pulled starter Rui Hachimura for recently acquired Dorian Finney-Smith. And after just 93 seconds of play in the quarter, he pulled Jaxson Hayes for Finney-Smith.
Errors in those sections, such as those at the end of the game, marked the difference between a great victory and a very close defeat, with little room for moral victories with the Lakers’ goals being the greatest.
They will play again on Tuesday in Dallas against the Mavericks.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.