LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) The Houston Rockets may play small, but they don’t use size to determine toughness.
And in Game 1, their style caused big problems for the Los Angeles Lakers.
James Harden scored 36 points and the Rockets ran away from the Lakers 112-97 on Friday night, the second straight round the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference lost its opener.
“It doesn’t matter how tall you are. If you have the heart and you’re a competitor you can be out there on the court,” Harden said.
Russell Westbrook added 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Eric Gordon had 23 points for the Rockets, the No. 4 seed who had just one day of rest after needing seven games to win their first-round series.
They sure didn’t look tired, flying around the court all night to make up for the size disadvantage they face with their small-ball style. They forced 17 turnovers that led to 27 points and played the much bigger Lakers even on the backboards.
“We’re small out there so we’ve got to be scrappy,” Westbrook said. “We’ve got to play hard.”
The Lakers never led after the first quarter and the Rockets blew it open by starting the fourth with a 16-3 run, turning a six-point advantage into a 101-82 cushion on Harden’s basket with 7:15 to play.
Anthony Davis had 25 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers. LeBron James had 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
He compared the Rockets to the speedy St. Louis Rams’ Super Bowl championship team of two decades ago, nicknamed the “Greatest Show on Turf.”
“There’s no way you can simulate their speed,” James said. “So getting out on the floor and having a Game 1 gives you a good feel for it.”
Game 2 is Sunday.
The Rockets committed to playing small in February, believing they weren’t built to compete with the best of the West playing conventionally. They debuted their style with a victory over the Lakers in Los Angeles and proved again why it they think it can work.
They were constantly on the move defensively, deflecting passes and corralling loose balls.
It’s the kind of plays they have to make while staring a lineup that has nobody taller than 6-foot-8 Robert Covington. They opened the game with the 6-3 Gordon guarding the 6-8 James and Harden defending 7-footer JaVale McGee.
The Lakers were playing for only the second time in 11 days. They beat Portland in Game 4 of their series on Aug. 24, but then didn’t play again until five nights later after the playoffs were delayed as players and the NBA committed to finishing the season following the Milwaukee Bucks’ decision not to play a game as a statement against racial injustice.
They didn’t appear to have any rust at the start, breaking to a 7-0 lead. But the rest of the first quarter was tight from there, Houston leading 29-28 after Rajon Rondo’s final shot came after the buzzer. The Lakers never led again.
“The Game 7 versus a team with rest — I’ve always felt that the team that played a Game 7 has a slight advantage,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “But you can’t look at that as any type of excuse. We’re not an excuse team. We’ve got to come out and compete to win a game. This one’s behind us. We lost it. Got to move on to Game 2.”
The Lakers are one of sports’ marquee franchises, their 16 championships one behind Boston for most in NBA history. But they are in the second round for the first time since 2012, a month before James won his first NBA title and Davis was drafted with the No. 1 pick.
And it was a rocky start to it, just as it was when the Blazers beat them in Game 1 of the last round.
Gordon scored Houston’s first nine points of the fourth quarter before Westbrook’s 3-pointer extended the lead to 97-82 with 9:07 remaining. Gordon then scored again before Harden’s basket while Davis was trying to draw a charge ended the run.
Harden made a 3-pointer for the last basket of the half and a 63-55 lead, giving him 25 points in the half.
TIP-INS
Rockets: Houston played the final game of the first round, edging Oklahoma City 104-102 on Wednesday. … Austin Rivers scored 10 points off the bench.
Lakers: Assistant coach Jason Kidd missed the game because of what Vogel said were severe back spasms. They are already without assistant Lionel Hollins, who didn’t join them in Disney for the restart and has been working remotely. … The Lakers kept their regular starting lineup, keeping JaVale McGee as the center.
RONDO RETURNS
Rondo got his first action in the bubble when he checked in for the Lakers in the first quarter. He scored eighth points. Rondo missed all eight seeding games while recovering from right thumb surgery, then was bothered by back spasms when he was set to play during the first round.
POSTSEASON PAST
This is the ninth postseason meeting between the teams, with the Lakers leading 5-3. They went on to win the championship after the last one, a 4-3 victory in the 2009 Western Conference semifinals.
MIAMI HEAT 115, MILWAUKEE BUCKS 100 (MIAMI LEADS 3-0)
Jimmy Butler sent the ball out to Jae Crowder, then started celebrating before his teammate even took the shot.
He knew what was about to happen.
The Miami Heat did it again – and have the Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 1 overall seed in the NBA playoffs, on the brink of leaving the bubble weeks earlier than they anticipated.
Butler scored 17 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, the Heat outscored the Bucks 40-13 in those final 12 minutes – the biggest fourth-quarter margin in NBA playoff history – and topped Milwaukee 115-100 to take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“No, I’m not surprised,” Butler said. “I think everybody else in the world might be. But not us here. Not if you wear a Heat jersey, if you’re one of these coaches, if you’re part of this organization, if you’ve been seeing what we’ve been doing all year long, that doesn’t surprise us.”
No team in NBA history has ever won after trailing 3-0.
“It can be us,” reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “It can definitely be us.”
Bam Adebayo had 20 points and 16 rebounds, and Crowder had 17 points to help the Heat improve to 7-0 in this postseason. Brook Lopez scored 22 points for Milwaukee, which got 21 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists from Antetokounmpo – who twisted an ankle in the first quarter and appeared to labor at times.
He said he was fine afterward.
The Bucks’ spirit, that has to be hurting. They led by 14 late in the third, and by 12 going into the fourth. Then, disaster: Milwaukee shot 6 for 23 from the field, 0 for 10 from 3-point range and got outscored 17-13 by Butler alone.
“They made every play,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “And we didn’t make enough, obviously.”
The Heat pulled off their biggest fourth-quarter playoff comeback ever. They were down 10 going into the fourth quarter of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against San Antonio, the game where Ray Allen sent it to overtime with a 3-pointer with 5.2 seconds left on the way to Miami’s most recent title.
Milwaukee led 87-75 going into the final quarter, up 12 with 12 minutes to go in a game that the Bucks knew they almost certainly had to win to keep any realistic hopes of winning a championship alive.
Miami had other ideas.
Tyler Herro opened the fourth with a 3-pointer, Goran Dragic made another 3 about three minutes later to cut the deficit to four, and the Heat were off and running. Butler had the next nine Miami points as the Heat went back on top, and he set Adebayo up for a short basket with 4:20 remaining to restore a 100-99 lead.
And Butler might have delivered the dagger with a pass; he found Jae Crowder for a left-wing 3-pointer with 2:15 left to put Miami up 107-100.
Butler knew it was good – he was running the other way, his arm in the air, before Crowder’s shot even found the inside of the net.
“It just shows how good of a basketball player Jimmy is,” “It’s not just about his scoring. … He does whatever’s necessary to help your team have a chance to win and that’s on both ends of the court.”
Crowder’s 3 was part of a 17-1 run to end the game.
Milwaukee needed less than five minutes to go on a 21-6 run that put the Bucks up 87-73 late in the third. Lopez and George Hill combined for the first 11 points of that run.
But the fourth, all Miami.
“We’re still here in the bubble,” Hill said. “It’s not the first one to win three games. It’s the first one to win four games. We still have basketball to play.”
TIP-INS
Bucks: Milwaukee fell to 0-7 against Miami in playoff games. … Antetokounmpo’s struggles from the line continued, with him going 3 for 8 in the first half – dropping him to 19 for his last 42 in the playoffs. He was 4 for 4 after halftime. … The Bucks missed their last 10 shots.
Heat: With Kelly Olynyk (bruised knee) out, Meyers Leonard got his first minutes of the playoffs. Leonard started for much of the season before a nasty ankle sprain in early February; Friday marked just his third appearance in the last seven months. … Miami took 47 3-pointers (making 18). The 47 3s were a playoff team record and second-most in team history overall.
GIANNIS 1K
A dunk in the fourth quarter gave Antetokounmpo 19 points on the night and 1,000 in his 42-game playoff career. He’s the 32nd player to score at least 1,000 points in his first 42 NBA playoff games; Michael Jordan has the most in that span, at 1,495.
HEAT DENIED
Miami’s plan of turning its home arena into an early voting location starting next month was denied Friday by elections officials in Miami-Dade County. “(If) forces involved in making this decision think this will quiet our voice on the critical importance of voting, they should know that we will not be deterred,” the team said. Many NBA teams are trying to host voting centers this fall, in part because of the agreement struck last week when players elected to continue the season.
UP NEXT
Game 4 is Sunday.