EL SEGUNDO — Desperation.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said he expects the Houston Rockets will be coming into Game 2 of their first-round playoff series with desperation on Tuesday night. After earning a 107-98 victory in the series opener on Saturday night against a Rockets squad that was playing without leading scorer Kevin Durant, Redick said his players have to match the Rockets’ potential must-win mentality.
Durant remains a game-time decision, Houston coach Ime Udoka told reporters after Durant was a partial participant in practice on Monday.
“We know they’re going to be the more desperate team in Game 2, and we have to play with the same sense of desperation we had in Game 1,” Redick said, adding that everyone who was available Saturday remained a full participant in Monday’s practice.
Redick then brought the conversation back toward the idea of “elevating” that he referenced during the week of preparation before Game 1.
“Every day requires something different,” he said. “Yesterday required an elevated recovery day. Today required an elevated focus, it was a longer film session. A decent amount of teach, talk on the court beyond just the practice session. Tomorrow is going to require an elevated sense of desperation on our part because they’re going to come in with that.”
Looking back on Saturday’s victory, the Lakers didn’t play to their prepared hallmarks. Redick spoke about the importance of offensive rebounding and taking care of the ball. The Lakers did neither well in Game 1. Houston outrebounded the Lakers on the offensive glass 22-3, which translated to 23 second-chance points (on 27 more field goal attempts than the Lakers had). They tormented Lakers ball handlers, forcing 20 turnovers.
And yet, the Lakers still comfortably staved off the Rockets with a focused second-half display.
“The fact that we still did all that and still managed to win is really good,” backup center Jaxson Hayes said. “I mean, obviously they’re missing KD, but I mean, obviously we still did a lot of other things right, and just gotta keep it up tomorrow.”
Desperation for the Lakers, in many ways, could include playing long enough in the playoffs to allow the return of Luka Doncic and/or Austin Reaves, both of whom are still “out indefinitely” with Grade 2 strains.
Since he fell to the court, grasping at his left hamstring on April 2 in Oklahoma City – an injury that ended his regular season – Doncic had been away from the Lakers. The Slovenian star flew to Spain, where he received treatment in the hopes of expediting his recovery; he watched his boyhood club, Real Madrid, play in the EuroLeague alongside tennis superstar Novak Djokovic before flying back to Los Angeles ahead of Game 1.
Doncic ribbed teammate Rui Hachimura during the game, swatting at the Japanese forward’s head while the ball was in play, returning to the joking antics that NBA’s regular-season scoring champion has been known for since joining the Lakers midway through last season.
Hachimura said Doncic messes with him so often that he couldn’t even recall Doncic’s mid-play distractions. Either way, as Doncic and Reaves helped with the less-glamorous parts of Lakers practice Monday by rebounding and passing balls for their teammates, Hachimura said he’s happy to have Doncic back around the group after more than two weeks away.
“I think people don’t know how much impact Luka has, not only on the court, but off the court,” said Hachimura, who had 14 points in 41 minutes in Game 1. “He’s a guy that always wants to be around with us. We love him just being around, just hanging out, talking. We’re happy that he’s back finally and he’s doing funny things always.
“We missed him for sure.”
NOTES
The Lakers lost a 2026 NBA Draft tiebreaker with the New York Knicks on Monday afternoon, landing the 25th overall pick during a handful of drawings for teams that shared identical overall records. …
Hayes announced Monday that he received a Slovenian passport recently, a significant step toward representing Slovenia alongside Doncic is his quest to become internationally eligible through the naturalization process. …
Earlier Monday, the Lakers announced they hired former Clippers director of corporate partnerships Ryan Kantor as the franchise’s new Vice President of Global Partnerships. Kantor has served in similar roles for the Dodgers and Ducks.
ROCKETS AT LAKERS
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/Radio: NBC (Ch. 4), Peacock/710 AM
