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Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James celebrates after making a 3-point shot during the first half of an NBA conference semifinal basketball game against the Houston Rockets on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ( AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida – The Los Angeles Lakers will reach the conference finals for the first time in a decade, ending the longest drought in franchise history.
LeBron James is going there for the first time since 2018. For him, that also qualifies as a drought.
James scored 29 points and the Lakers concluded their first trip to the Western Conference final since 2010 by beating the Houston Rockets 119-96 on Saturday night in Game 5 at Walt Disney World.
Kyle Kuzma scored 17 points, Markieff Morris had 16, Danny Green added 14 and Anthony Davis finished with 13 for the Lakers’ top seeds. They will play the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers or third-seeded Denver Nuggets for the West title in a series that won’t start before Wednesday.
James is going to the conference finals for the 11th time overall – six with Cleveland, four with Miami and now with the Lakers. It is the ninth time he has reached this round in the last 10 seasons; the only flaw in that stretch was last season, when his inaugural year with the Lakers fell apart due to injury and the team missed the playoffs.
James Harden scored 30 points, Jeff Green scored 13 and Russell Westbrook had 10 for Houston.
It was a tough ending to a tough week for the Rockets.
Westbrook exchanged heated words with a fan from the family section during the fourth quarter; NBA security asked the man, identified by ESPN as the brother of Lakers guard Rajon Rondo, to leave the game.
Houston won Game 1 of the series and lost the next four. Saturday’s final came a day after Danuel House, who averaged 11.4 points in nine playoff games this season, was told to leave the bubble. An NBA investigation showed that he had an unauthorized guest in his room for several hours earlier this week and missed the last three games of the series.
And now that the offseason is here, speculation about the future of coach Mike D’Antoni will mount. His contract with the Rockets is now complete, the parties could not agree on the terms of any extensions a year ago and he has been mentioned as a candidate for vacancies in Indiana and Philadelphia.
The Lakers held a 33-11 lead, although Houston came back with a 17-2 run to get within seven. The Lakers’ lead was 62-51 at the half after the Rockets converted 13 Los Angeles turnovers into 15 points, the main reason Houston was still in the game up to that point.
Houston approached seven on a Westbrook drive 2:09 in the third, and that was the Rockets’ last real breath of hope. The Lakers scored the next 15 points and the lead was 95-69 in the fourth quarter.
TIPS
Rockets: Houston finished the postseason with a 5-7 record. … The Rockets took a couple of timeouts in the first 6:06 of the game, first when it was 13-2 and then after James hit a 3-pointer to bring the lead to 23-7.
Lakers: Los Angeles went seven years without a conference finals appearance from 1991 to 1998, the team’s longest drought prior to this 10-year streak. … The Lakers took the lead in Game 3 with James’ jump shot with 10:01 left. They did not fall behind in the series again, passing the final 106:01 without facing a deficit.
TENURE OF D’ANTONI
If this was the end of D’Antoni’s time with the Rockets, he will walk away with some strong numbers. Houston was 217-101 in his four regular seasons with the team, a .682 winning percentage. This season was the “worst,” at .611. He is 28-23 in the playoffs with Houston and was the NBA’s coach of the year in 2016-17, his first season with the Rockets.
CONGRATULATIONS
Less than two hours before the match, James tweeted Naomi Osaka, who rallied to win the US Open women’s championship in three sets on Saturday. “GREAT RETURN !! Congratulations, ”James wrote. Osaka wore masks throughout the tournament with names of black victims of violence; James saluted her efforts by adding a raised fist emoji to the end of her tweet.
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