Get ready for Thursday’s game between the Lakers and Rockets with 10 key stats to know about the matchup.
Game 4: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets (LAL Leads 2-1), 7:00 ET, NBA League Pass
- The Rockets attempted only 30 3-pointers in Game 3 making it only the second time all season that they have attempted 30 or fewer 3-pointers in a game (Jan. 22 vs. DEN, 29 3PA).
- The Rockets have outscored the Lakers by 30 points in P.J. Tucker’s 108 minutes on court, and been outscored by 33 points when he’s off the court.
- The Rockets have not trailed heading into the fourth quarter in any game of this series. The winner of the fourth quarter has won each of the first three games, with Houston +9 in Game 1 and the Lakers +10 in both Games 2 and 3.
- Rajon Rondo is 7-12 from the field and 3-5 from 3 with 9 assists overall in the 4th quarters of this series, playing 31 of the 36 minutes.
- LeBron James finished Game 3 with 36 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks and 1 steal in the win; since 1983-84 only David West (2008) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1995) have reached those marks in a playoff game. This was LeBron’s fourth playoff game with at least 4 blocks, and the first since April 17, 2017 vs. Indiana.
- LeBron James is averaging 28.0 points on 54.5% shooting, 8.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists in this series. Eric Gordon has defended LeBron for a team-high 13:37 and held LeBron to 8 total points on 3-9 FG with 4 assists and 7 turnovers. In 26:34 against all other Rockets defenders, LeBron has 70 points on 24-43 (55.8%) shooting with 13 assists and 6 turnovers. The Lakers have scored 1.08 points per possession with Gordon defending LeBron and 1.67 points per possession when any other Rocket defends him.
- James Harden leads all players in the conference semifinals on drives (19.0 per game) and points off drives (13.3 per game). His 52% FG ranks 9th among the 22 players with at least 20 drives in this round. LeBron James leads that same group in field goal percentage on drives at 77.8%.
- P.J. Tucker (19:14) and James Harden (6:59) have spent the most time defending Anthony Davis during this series. Davis has 25 points on 10-18 shooting with four assists against Tucker, who has forced 4 turnovers, blocked 2 shots and committed only 2 shooting fouls in the matchup. Davis has 22 points on 10-13 FG against Harden.
- Heading into this series, the Rockets had not lost a game in 2019-20 when they shot at least 40% from 3-point range. They have now lost back-to-back games when shooting 40% or better from beyond the arc in this series.
- In the first three games of this series, the Rockets have averaged 33.3 3-point attempts that are either open (closest defender 4-6 feet away) or wide open (closest defender 6+ feet away). That number of attempts is down significantly from the first round vs. OKC (42.6) and the regular season (38.4). While the number of attempts are down, the Rockets are shooting 44% on those open looks, which is far superior than their success rate vs. OKC (35.9%) and during the regular season (35.0%).
