Lakers demolish Rockets for second straight time

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports

Well, the good news is that the Rockets won't be seeing the Lakers for a long, long while.

After losing to the Lakers by 18 a mere two nights ago, the Rockets this time battled to lose by a deficit of only 17 in another laugher on Tuesday night, as the Lakers beat Houston for the second straight time by a score of 117-100.

L.A. once again got off to a scorching start, jumping ahead to an 18-10 run midway through the first quarter. Instead of Anthony Davis, this time it was LeBron James running things for the Lake Show. In his second game against Houston this year, he would ball out, dropping 26 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in the victory.

In what seems to be a recurring theme for the Rockets, the hometown squad again got off to a horrendously poor start. After being outscored 18-10, the defending champs would go on another 10-0 run to push their lead to 28-10 in the waning minutes of the first quarter. They would end up trailing the Lakers 35-14 after one quarter of play.

It was another offensive mess all-around for the team. Not a single Rocket scored over 20 points. Outside of Eric Gordon, not a single Rocket shot over 50% on more than ten shot attempts. As a whole, the Rockets shot under 40% from the field.

Another area of concern was the rebounding differential. L.A. out-rebounded the Rockets 55-42, reminiscent of the small-ball era not more than a year ago. The hope was that with the acquisition of Christian Wood and DeMarcus Cousins that the rebounding numbers would go up, but for now, that remains to be seen.

It appears obvious that there's a lot of work to be done for this team to stand a chance in the West. If the past two games were a bar for measurement, then the Rockets fell well below expectations.

Houston, now 3-6, will next square off for two consecutive games at their rival San Antonio Spurs' house. They'll hope to get back in the win column on Thursday with a slightly easier schedule, with games against the Spurs, Pistons and Wizards slated for the near future. Tip-off against San Antonio starts at 6:30 PM CT.