The Houston Rockets needed a desperate rally in the fourth quarter to score the Los Angeles Lakers into action for basically a couple of plays. Ultimately, the Lakers were dominant in Thursday night’s Game 4 and the Rockets star players failed to deliver in a crucial situation and now they face a 3-1 deficit. Only 12 times in the NBA’s history has a team come back to win a series after trailing 3-1.
On Friday, Rockets role player Austin Rivers delivered a scathing critique of the Rockets, in particular their effort. In Rivers’ words, the Lakers already have LeBron James, they will have little hope of extending this series to even a 6th game.
Austin Rivers: "They got LeBron, probably the best player in basketball, by far, and then they got Anthony Davis. You can't play against that team and those guys play harder than you, too. Then you got no shot. If we're going to beat them, we gotta play harder than them."
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) September 11, 2020
Even though the Lakers have decided to downsize their lineups more, mostly taking key centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard out of the equation, the Lakers have still blasted the Rockets on the glass. Through four games, the Lakers have posted a monstrous offensive rebound rate of 26.1%, according to Basketball-Reference. Anthony Davis (12.8) and LeBron James (10.3) have led the way, each averaging over 10 rebounds per game in the series.
