Lakers Highlights: Gabe Vincent & Dorian Finney-Smith Come Up Big Offensively In Win Over Rockets
Yesterday at 05:00 AM
The Los Angeles Lakers returned home and hosted the No. 2 seeded Houston Rockets in a game that had massive implications for the Western Conference standings.
Neither team was able to get much going offensively, particularly early, but the Lakers pulled through late and hung on for a 104-98 victory. The Lakers are now 2.5 games back of the No. 2 seed with seven games to play and control their own destiny for a top-four seed at the very least. If they get some help across the league, they could get up to third or second.
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Lakers as five players were in double figures but non scored more than 20. Luka Doncic led the way as usual with 20 points, six rebounds, nine assists and two steals. Despite shooting 6-for-16 from the field, Doncic was getting a ton of open looks for his teammates.
The two players who made the most out of those looks were Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finney-Smith, who both had 20 points off the bench. Vincent shot 6-of-13 from deep while Finney-Smith was 6-of-11. They became the first pair of Lakers teammates with six-plus 3-pointers each off the bench in the same game.
While it wasn’t a huge night on the stat sheet for LeBron James, he came up big down the stretch with some clutch free throws and then a block to seal it. With the Lakers leading late, James had a thunderous block on Alperen Sengun after anticipating his layup attempt. LeBron ended up finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks in 38 minutes.
It was also a quiet night for Austin Reaves by his standards, although he still wound up with 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals on 5-of-11 shooting. He also had some big defensive plays, including taking a charge when the game was close in the fourth quarter.
With this win, the Lakers are now 12-1 against Western Conference teams since the All-Star break. That bodes well for them moving forward as they have played all of the Eastern Conference teams on their schedule, meaning they would be facing exclusively West teams until the NBA Finals if they were to advance that far.
What’s next for the Lakers…
The Lakers’ home stand continues with a back-to-back on Thursday and Friday against the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively, before going back on the road.
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