Los Angeles Lakers eliminate Houston 98-78

The Los Angeles Lakers closed out Houston with a 98-78 road win on Friday, May 1, sending the Rockets out of the playoffs in Game 6 and ending a series that had tightened after a 3-0 Lakers lead. LeBron James scored 28 points, Rui Hachimura added 21 and Los Angeles held Houston to a season low in points, according to NBA.com and the Associated Press. The result gave the No. 4 seed Lakers a 4-2 series win over the No. 5 seed Rockets. Los Angeles had won the first three games, Houston forced the series back to Texas with victories in Games 4 and 5, and the Lakers then ended it in six. ### How did the Lakers put the game away? Los Angeles used a 27-3 run in the first half to take control and led by 18 at halftime, NBA.com’s game recap said. (nba.com) The Lakers pushed the margin to 25 in the third quarter and never let Houston make a serious late run. The fourth quarter opened with a 10-3 Lakers burst, including five points from Hachimura, stretching the lead to 81-58 with about seven minutes left, according to the AP recap carried on NBA.com. (nba.com) That sequence effectively ended Houston’s hopes of extending the series to a seventh game. ### Which numbers told the story most clearly? LeBron James finished with 28 points and Hachimura made five 3-pointers on his way to 21 points, while Austin Reaves scored 15 points after returning to the starting lineup, NBA.com reported. (nba.com) Deandre Ayton added seven points and 16 rebounds for Los Angeles. Houston shot 35% from the field and went 5-for-28 from 3-point range, according to NBA.com’s playoff takeaways. (nba.com) Amen Thompson scored 18 points and Alperen Sengun had 17, but the Rockets never found enough offense to match their defensive effort. ### What did the teams say after the elimination game? LeBron James said the Lakers’ formula was straightforward. “In order for us to win we had to protect the ball, we had to rebound and we had to be physical, make them take tough shots,” James said after the game, according to the AP report on NBA.com. (nba.com) He added that the Lakers “executed that thing to a T” on defense. (nba.com) JJ Redick called the series win meaningful for a team that had been doubted late in the season. “For us to be written off a few weeks ago and win a playoff series is a big deal,” Redick said, according to the AP report. NBA.com’s playoff takeaways also quoted Redick saying “Gratitude” had been his word for the season after his first playoff series victory as Lakers coach. (nba.com) Ime Udoka pointed to Houston’s shooting. “We thought we were taking it back (to Los Angeles) for Game 7,” the Rockets coach said, according to NBA.com. “But tough night for a lot of guys. Shooting 35% and only scoring 78, you’re not going to win even if you defend the way we did.” ### Was this a first-round series or a second-round series? (nba.com) NBA.com’s official playoff page lists Lakers-Rockets as a 2026 Western Conference first-round series, with Los Angeles winning 4-2 in Game 6 on May 1 in Houston. The same page shows the game-by-game results: Lakers wins in Games 1, 2 and 3, Rockets wins in Games 4 and 5, and the Lakers’ closeout win in Game 6. (nba.com) ESPN’s team schedule pages also place the Lakers in the next round against Oklahoma City after the Houston series ended. That means the preliminary framing of this matchup as a second-round series was incorrect; the Rockets were eliminated in the first round. ### What comes next for the Lakers? The Lakers advanced to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals, with Game 1 scheduled for Tuesday in Oklahoma City, NBA.com’s recap said. (nba.com) ESPN’s Lakers schedule page also shows Los Angeles already in that series, with Oklahoma City holding a 2-0 lead before the next listed game on May 9. (espn.com) The broader playoff calendar continued on Friday, May 15, with San Antonio at Minnesota in a West semifinals Game 6 and Detroit at Cleveland in an East semifinals Game 6, according to the NBA’s official schedule page. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2)