Lakers clinch series over Rockets; will face Thunder in West second round (Game 1 May 4)

The Lakers are through, and the way they got there matters almost as much as the bracket line. They didn’t just survive Houston’s pushback. They crushed it in Game 6, winning 98-78 on Friday, May 1, and turning a tense first-round series into a very cle(msn.com 1)(msn.com 2)e season, and the Lakers blew the game open with a 27-3 run that buried any late drama. LeBron James led the way with 28 points, and Los Angeles looked a lot more like the team that grabbed a 3-1 series lead than the one that let Houston stretch the matchup to a sixth game. (msn.com), athletic, and built to pressure teams into mistakes, but in the elimination game they couldn’t generate enough half-court offense to make the Lakers uncomfortable. When a veteran team wins that kind of game, the message is pretty simple — it found the series answer before the opponent did. (msn.com)ey’ve been sitting while the Lakers and Rockets kept grinding through extra games. That gives OKC the usual second-round edge — home court, more rest, and more time to prep for specific matchups. (okcthunderwire.usatoday.com) ### When does the series actually start(msn.com)ay, May 7. That’s the key date correction here — not Monday, May 4. The West semifinal on May 4 is the other bracket, while this series starts a day later. (espn.com) ### Why is Oklahoma City the hard version of this test? Because the Thunder are not Houston with a (okcthunderwire.usatoday.com)am that spent the season at the top of the conference. The Lakers just beat a dangerous lower seed. Now they get the team everybody in the West has been measuring against. (usatoday.com) ### What do the (espn.com)ly. LeBron James is still the organizing force, and a veteran team that just answered a closeout wobble with a 20-point road win is not walking into Round 2 fragile. The Lakers also got the kind of defensive performance that can travel. That matters because role players can swing wildly from home to road, but defense and decision-making tend to hold up better. (msn.com)The Lakers have the sharper recent reps after a live series. One side gets recovery. The other gets continuity. Early in Game 1, you usually find out which one matters more. (okcthunderwire.usatoday.com) ### Bottom line The Lakers earned this matchup by ending Houston (msn.com)Thunder would require something bigger — holding that control against the best team left on its side of the West.