Houston Rockets fans may rejoice after Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Rockets won the game but ever so marginally, in overtime. The final score of 138-134 was hardly stellar. While they came back from 21 points behind, self-congratulation hardly seems in order as Lakers were down three of their top players. LeBron James sat out with his groin injury. Rajon Rondo didn't play as he's only been cleared for contact practice for next week and Lonzo Ball suffered his newest injury.

Houston trailed by 13 in the first quarter

As noted by DreamShake, Rockets looked "dead in the water" as the game started.

Kyle Kuzma stepped up, and this resulted in Rockets trailing by 13 at the end of the first quarter. BY half time, Lakers led by 21 points, mainly thanks to the determined play by their team, and some very inaccurate shooting by the Rockets.

The game looked good as Lakers managed to hold Rockets back, but the loss of Lonzo Ball came at a crucial moment. Without Lebron James and Rondo playing, Lonzo really carried a lot of the offensive moves on his shoulders. He did very well as his game suddenly blossomed recently. We always knew it would be a tight game against Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, but Lakers won, and a large part of that effort came from Lonzo.

Containing James Harden without Lonzo Ball

Lonzo Ball would have been crucial in helping to contain James Harden, but he collided with James Ennis and fell down. Lakers teammates assisted him, and he was taken to hospital for X-Rays. It turns out Lonza has a sprained ankle, rather than anything more serious, but it meant he was out of the rest of the game against Houston.

With him out, and Houston fighting back in the second half, the game still was not an inevitable win for Rockets. As James Harden said in his post-game interview, if they had played the same game as the second half from the beginning, they would never have been so far behind. While it all sounds good and like it should have been an epic game, it really was not.

Rockets went up for 68 three-point attempts and Lakers 105 times, which gets a bit boring for viewers after a while, one Youtuber commented.

What do you think about Houston Rockets winning by such a narrow margin with LeBron James, Lonzo, and Rajon Rondo out the game? Would the outcome have been different if Lonzo Ball hadn't hurt his ankle? Sound off in the comments.

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