The curse of the NBA regular season is that it’s a monthslong slog from city to city, from hotel rooms and hostile arenas, with opposing scouting reports bleeding into one another in what can create an unrecognizable blur.
The gift of that 82-game schedule are the tests, the moments of competition when a team can take an honest look at what it is and what it isn’t against worthy opposition.
Sunday, the Lakers were given a gift.
Playing a Houston team that swept the Lakers last season because of their size, speed and athleticism, the Lakers got a chance to fight a team just above them in the standings. And it was a fight that they nearly won.
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Despite being badly beaten for almost the whole first half, the Lakers played one of their best second halves of the season only to come up just short 119-115.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 22 late in the first half and by as many as 20 early in the third before Anthony Davis and LeBron James led a wild comeback that ended with the Lakers having a chance to tie the score with 7.2 seconds left.
James, who was called for an offensive foul earlier in the final minute, scored on a quick layup and grabbed Alperen Sengun’s missed free throw to give the Lakers a chance to tie it for the first time since the score was 10-10.
But Max Christie couldn’t get the ball inbounded, with James signaling for a timeout the Lakers didn’t receive. Christie’s pass was intercepted by Fred VanVleet, who sealed the game by making one of two free throws.
Davis led the Lakers with 30 points and 13 rebounds, James and Austin Reaves each had 21 and Christie scored 14. James also had 13 rebounds and Reaves 10 assists.
Jalen Green, who torched the Lakers early, closed them out in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 33 points.
The standards have been set, both by the Lakers’ recent run of play and by the demands that their coach, JJ Redick, has publicly and privately put on them.
Good is maybe what the Lakers are here in the first week of January; great is where they want to be. And if things aren’t being done correctly, well, Redick has insisted that he’ll find someone who will.
Less than a minute into the third quarter, Redick pulled starter Rui Hachimura for recently acquired Dorian Finney-Smith. And after just 93 seconds of playing time in the fourth, he yanked Jaxson Hayes for Finney-Smith.
The mistakes in those stretches, such as the ones late in the game, were the difference between a great win and hard-fought loss, with little room for moral victories with the Lakers’ goals being bigger.
They play again Tuesday in Dallas against the Mavericks.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
