The Los Angeles Lakers no longer look like a team that swept aside the Houston Rockets in three games. They look like a team trying not to become the answer to a trivia question.
Houston won 99-93 at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night to close the first-round series to 3-2, the second consecutive loss for a Lakers side that had taken a commanding 3-0 lead earlier in the week. Game 6 returns to Houston on Friday, with the Rockets a single win from forcing the kind of decisive Game 7 that no NBA team has ever won after losing the first three.
Austin Reaves was the night's lone Lakers boost. The guard returned from a nine-game absence with an oblique injury and scored 22 points off the bench. LeBron James added 25 and Deandre Ayton finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, but the offence around them stalled in a 16-point second quarter and never fully recovered.
Reaves was honest about what his return felt like.
"It was nice to get back out there, obviously," Reaves said. "I wish I would have played a little better. I wish I would have made a couple more shots, but at the end of the day, I had fun out there and it was good to compete."
JJ Redick walked into the postgame podium with a longer list of grievances. The Lakers head coach kept circling back to turnovers and substitution patterns in a second quarter that flipped the game.
"Another period in the second quarter where we just turned the ball over," Redick said. "Certainly had some long stretches where we didn't have success with turnovers, but that was part of it. A little bit of game plan and KYP mistakes defensively for us in that second quarter. We'll take a look at the whole process and take a look at the substitution patterns and figure out where we can be better in Game 6."
Redick split his frustration between his own offence and the shots Houston was suddenly making.
"You got to give them a lot of credit. They made shots tonight, including some guys who normally don't make threes," he said. "I think our defense, you hope 99 is enough to win and we just couldn't make shots. Missed some layups. Certainly had some good looks from three that didn't go down."
Pressed on the kind of turnovers he could live with, Redick drew a sharp distinction.
"Turnovers of aggression are okay," he said. "Turnovers of of passivity are not."
The Rockets, meanwhile, were not interested in talking about history. Jabari Smith Jr. led Houston with 22 points and seven rebounds. Alperen Sengun stuffed the box score with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and Amen Thompson chipped in 15. After the win, Sengun spoke like a player who already has Game 7 circled.
"Everybody feels amazing. Nobody is tired and today everybody showed it," Sengun said. "Now, we're going in front of our families, our fans, we're gonna protect our home and come back here for Game 7."
Rockets coach Ime Udoka kept his focus on the process rather than the prize.
"Big-time performances by everybody across the board," Udoka said. "You want to show growth, and I think we did that tonight."
For the Lakers, the message in the locker room is now identical to the one in Houston's. Asked what reaction he wants from his group over the next 48 hours, Redick rejected the premise of a panic.
"It's the first team to win four games in a series," Redick said. "We happen to have won the first three. They happen to have won the last two. We've got to be better."
Game 6 tips off in Houston on Friday.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/lakers-blow-3-0-lead-rockets-force-game-6-reaves-return-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
