ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Los Angeles Lakers trailed the Houston Rockets by only six points at the start of the fourth quarter when they tried a lineup that had never played together in a game.
Kyle Kuzma, Rajon Rondo, LeBron James, Markieff Morris and Dwight Howard took the court together.
Against that lineup, the Rockets quickly increased their lead to 12 before the Lakers made substitutions. Houston ultimately put together a 16-3 run to start the quarter on the way to winning Game 1 of their second-round playoff series, with the Lakers' only points coming from a three-pointer by Rondo, who was playing his first game in the bubble after having surgery on a broken thumb.
"It's super tough," Morris said when asked about the difficulties of learning a new lineup during the playoffs. "But in the playoffs anything can happen, you've just gotta be ready to play when your number's called. Coach trusts us, that's why he put us out there. We've just gotta be better. If we can't score the ball, we at least gotta be able to get stops ... be physical."
Howard played the first 2:53 of the quarter as the Lakers' deficit grew to 15 by the time he left the court. Both Howard and Rondo declined to speak with reporters.
At the end of that run, the Rockets had a 19-point lead. The Lakers' inexperience together, though, was not something they chose to emphasize.
"Whoever is on the floor, we got to do a better job of executing," James said. "And EG (Eric Gordon) came in in the fourth quarter and sparked them on the offensive end. Getting to the line. Getting into the paint. Making shots. And we didn't get any to fall for us. So we got to do a better job of that."
