LeBron James put the blame for the Los Angeles Lakers‘ blowout loss to the Houston Rockets on himself as their first-round playoff series was stretched to Game 5.
The Lakers had the chance to sweep the Rockets, but were beaten 115-96 in Game 4, with James committing eight turnovers in a contest that saw him score only 10 points.
Los Angeles trailed by nine points at the half, but the Lakers were outscored 34-18 in the third quarter as the Rockets pulled away, with James giving the ball away four times in that period.
“It started with me, obviously,” James said. “My turnovers were unacceptable.”
The Lakers saw DeAndre Ayton ejected with 5:41 left in the third after foul on Alperen Sengun was upgraded from a common foul to a flagrant 2.
Ayton hit Sengun on the side of the head with his forearm, though both teams were bemused by the decision to eject the Lakers center.
“We both are sweaty guys,” Ayton said. “[My arm] just slipped off his shoulder. … I’m not no guy who is a dirty player or who plays like that.”
“I know what I saw,” James added. “I think he was bracing for Sengun on the post up, [his] elbow [was] getting ready for the physical contact and then you see it, his arm slipped going up and then hit him in the head.”
Expressing his surprise, Sengun said: “I don’t want to make the officials crazy, but I mean, I didn’t expect them to eject him to be honest.
“I think it was a little bit soft. … I guess it is what it is, they called it. I’m glad they called it. So, we go from there.”
The Lakers will host Game 5 on Wednesday.
Edwards suffers knee injury in Timberwolves win
The Minnesota Timberwolves appear on a collision course with the San Antonio Spurs after both teams moved into 3-1 leads in their respective series.
San Antonio beat the Portland Trail Blazers 114-93 as Victor Wembanyama returned from concussion, while the Timberwolves, the sixth seed in the Western Conference, took another step towards an upset of the third seed Denver Nuggets with a 112-96 victory.
Yet there is concern for the Timberwolves after star guard Anthony Edwards hyperextended his knee in that win. Edwards avoided ligament damage, but is set for weeks on the sideline and will miss the rest of the series, according to ESPN’s Shams Chanaria.
In the East, the Toronto Raptors tied their series with the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 93-89 win at home.
Toronto converted just four of their 30 three-point attempts (13.3%), marking lowest three-point success rate from a team with at least 25 attempts in a playoff win in NBA history.
The Philadelphia 76ers could not replicate the Raptors in squaring their series with the Boston Celtics despite the return of Joel Embiid.
Embiid scored 26 points on his return from an emergency appendectomy, but the Celtics excelled from beyond the arc, hitting 24 three-pointers, with Payton Pritchard scoring 32 points in a 128-96 road win to give Boston a 3-1 lead.
“It’s tough,” said Embiid. “But you try to do the best job possible with the conditions. Still got to go out there and try to play well and win a basketball game and we didn’t do that tonight. We didn’t play well.”
You Should Also Read
