The trip to Laker Land paid off for the Houston Rockets as they went into Crypto Arena and stunned the Lakers 99-93. The victory keeps Los Angeles ahead 3-2 in the series but forces the series back to Houston for Game 6 Friday at Toyota Center.
The Rockets became just the 16th team, after trailing 3-0 in a series, to bounce back and force a 6th game.
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All-time no NBA team has ever won a series after trailing 3-0. Teams overall are 0-160 in that scenario with only four teams coming back to force a game 7.
“We have a resilient group that plays hard every night, that’s our DNA,” Head Coach Ime Udoka said after the win Wednesday night. “We’ll battle and there have been plenty of positives to look at in this series.”
Kevin Durant once again sat out Wednesday’s game and he has now missed 4 of the first 5 games in the series. Durant is not expected to be ready to play in Game 6 but the Rockets have yet to make any official announcement.
Leading the way for the Rockets, who led by as many as 13 points early in the 4th quarter, were Jabari Smith Jr ( 22 points), Tari Eason (18 points), and Alperen Sengun (14 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists).
Bench production had been limited early in the series but Wednesday the Rockets got a boost from Dorian Finney-Smith ( 6 points, 11 minutes), Aaron Holiday (5 points, 13 minutes) and Josh Okogie ( 7 points, 18 minutes).
Houston finished with 14 three-pointers on 40 attempts with seven different Rockets players hitting from distance.