Lakers eliminate Rockets in Game 6, set to face Thunder

The Lakers are through, and the interesting part is not just that they beat Houston. It’s how cleanly they shut the door. Los Angeles won Game 6, 98-78, on Friday, May 1, in Houston and closed the first-round series 4-2 after briefly letting a 3-0 lead get messy. That sends the Lakers into a Western Conference semifinal against the Thunder, with Game 1 set for Tuesday, May 5, in Oklahoma City. ### How did the Lakers finish it? They did it with defense first. Houston scored a season-low 78 points, shot 35% from the field, and hit only 5 of 28 from three after looking much more alive in Games 4 and 5. The Lakers built the game around physicality, rebounding, and forcing bad looks — basically the exact formula you want on the road in a closeout game. ### Who carried the offense? LeBron James led with 28 points, and Rui Hachimura added 21 while knocking down five threes. That mattered because this wasn’t one of those wild 125-point playoff games where everybody eats. Los Angeles only scored 98. The gap came from control — fewer mistakes, better shot quality, and long stretches where Houston simply couldn’t generate anything reliable. ### When did the game swing? Early. The Lakers ripped off a 27-3 run in the first half and turned a small deficit into an 18-point halftime lead. Houston trimmed the margin a bit in the third, but Los Angeles answered at the start of the fourth and never let the building believe again. That’s what a veteran closeout looks like — one big punch, then no drama. ### Why is this series win notable? Because this Lakers team looked shaky not that long ago. JJ Redick’s group got through the first round for the first time since 2023, and it did so as the No. 4 seed against a 52-win Houston team that had home-court edge in Game 6 and had just won two straight. The series stopped feeling inevitable after Game 5. Los Angeles still finished it before the pressure could really flip. ### What happened to Houston? The Rockets ran out of shot-making. Amen Thompson scored 18 and Alperen Sengun had 17, but the offense never found rhythm, especially from deep. Houston had made 26 threes combined in the previous two games, then crashed back to earth in the elimination game. That kind of swing is brutal in the playoffs — one night you look like the younger, faster team with momentum, and the next night the floor shrinks and every possession feels crowded. ### What’s the Thunder matchup now? Oklahoma City swept Phoenix 4-0 and has been waiting. That means the Thunder come in rested, higher-seeded, and with home court. The official playoff schedule has this semifinal opening May 5 in Oklahoma City, with Game 2 also in OKC on May 7. So the Lakers get almost no runway before jumping from a physical six-game series into a matchup with the West’s top seed. ### What will decide the series? Probably pace and half-court control. The Lakers just showed they can win ugly, which matters against a Thunder team that punishes sloppy offense and loves to turn games into turnover races. But the catch is rest — OKC has had it, and Los Angeles hasn’t. If the Lakers can make this a slower, more physical series, they have a path. If the Thunder get the game moving downhill, the math gets tougher fast. ### Bottom line The headline is simple — Lakers over Rockets in six. But the real takeaway is that Los Angeles rediscovered its defensive identity just in time, and now gets the hardest test in the West immediately.