The Los Angeles Lakers were already saying all of the right things about expecting the Houston Rockets to play a desperate game in tonight’s potential close-out game. And just in case their words were hollow, the Los Angeles Clippers delivered a reminder to be ready for anything, as the Denver Nuggets stormed back to force a Game 6 after they were down 3-1, like the Rockets currently are.
Lakers wing Danny Green discussed how the close out games can be the hardest in a series. Even in the last round, the Trail Blazers made the Lakers sweat a little bit without Damian Lillard. So even though Danuel House is out for the rest of the series, Houston’s overall play might look a lot more like the last few minutes of Game 4, where they mounted a comeback to cut what had been a 23-point 4th quarter lead down to 5.
“As you saw (Thursday) night, they never gave up, even though they were down pretty big and we were up pretty comfortably, they gave themselves a chance,” Green said on Friday, according to Harrison Faigen of SB Nation. “We’ve got to do a better job of staying mature and keeping our foot on the gas and not letting up.”
The Lakers look to finish off the Rockets on Saturday night at 6 p.m. Pacific.
