The Rockets surged to a 135-119 win over the Lakers as Houston’s young stars shone brightest while LeBron James was taunted by an old foe.
Before Tuesday’s game, Lakers coach Darvin Ham described Cam Whitmore as a “bright, young superstar that’s going to be in our league for a long time”.
Well, if that’s the case, there are going to be plenty more highlight-reel plays from the emerging Rockets rookie to come after Whitmore lit it up early against L.A. at Toyota Center.
The Lakers had won five of their last seven games before Tuesday to start moving up the Western Conference standings after the team’s post-In-Season tournament struggles.
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In that sense, a loss like the one they had on Tuesday was always bound to happen and you can point to Oklahoma City’s shock defeat to Detroit on Monday as proof that sometimes you can just have a bad day.
To say that though would be to also discredit what this Houston team is building, led by a young core which Ham said has the “makings to be really special for a long time”.
The Rockets jumped out to a 42-31 lead after the first quarter, with Whitmore scoring the team’s final 12 points of the period to go with three rebounds.
That all came in just over two minutes too as Whitmore exploded for three dunks, one of which came from an insane Amen Thompson pass, and a pair of 3-pointers.
The Lakers, meanwhile, managed just two points as Whitmore took over late in the quarter with LeBron James and Anthony Davis sitting.
Jalen Green led the way for the Rockets in the quarter as a whole with 13 points. D’Angelo Russell also had 13 points for the Lakers as he continues to impress ahead of the trade deadline.
Russell has been consistently mentioned as a key trade piece in a potential Lakers move for Dejounte Murray, although his recent form could give L.A. another reason to reconsider how much it prioritises the Hawks guard.
As if giving up 42 points in the first quarter wasn’t bad enough, things quickly only got worse for the Lakers as Jarred Vanderbilt — one of their best defensive players — was ejected.
It wasn’t surprising to see Dillon Brooks at the centre of the drama, although this time it wasn’t James who the Houston playmaker was clashing with.
Rather, it was Vanderbilt who quickly picked up two technical fouls after a heated exchange with Brooks after first shoving him in the chest and then later poking him in the side of the head.
It appeared that Vanderbilt took exception to Brooks pushing him while he was in the air on a dunk around a minute earlier. The play was ruled a common foul after referees reviewed for a possible flagrant foul.
At that point of the game Houston was leading 46-36 and continued to shred the Los Angeles defence on the way to opening up a 62-41 buffer with seven minutes left in the quarter.
The Lakers were able to cut the deficit to 13 points with 40 seconds remaining but five quick points for Brooks pushed Houston’s lead back out to 78-60 at halftime.
Brooks was certainly enjoying himself as the Rockets made easy work of the Lakers, visibly watching on as James missed two free throws late in the game while also staring him down after hitting a shot over the L.A. superstar earlier in the quarter.
Brooks also picked up a Flagrant 1 foul for hitting James on the head while he went up for a bucket, with the 39-year-old upset that his arch-nemesis wasn’t ejected for the dirty act.
James was asked about Brooks after the loss but simply replied: “Next question”.
Teammate Anthony Davis though had plenty to say, both about the foul on James and suggestions that Brooks had said something untowards to Vanderbilt before the ejection.
The 78 points in the opening half was a team season-high with the Rockets’ young starting trio of Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun and Green combining for 42 of those points while Whitmore had 16 off the bench.
Fred VanVleet, meanwhile, may have only attempted one shot in the half but he was making his presence felt as a playmaker with a team-high six assists.
It spoke to the great culture Houston is building, where a veteran like VanVleet is more than happy to take a backseat as a scorer if the team’s younger players are feeling it early.
Green ended as Houston’s leading scorer with 34 points while Sengun had 31 points. Both had 12 rebounds.
Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Russell all had 23 points while Rui Hachimura added 16 points off the bench.
The Lakers were able to cut what was once a 30-point deficit to 10 points but weren’t able to get close enough to threaten the comeback and now prepare for the second night of a back-to-back against the Hawks on Wednesday.
There will be little rest for James in particular, who managed 37 minutes despite the game being largely out of hand by the third quarter, having on Sunday played 48 minutes in a double-overtime win.
TIMBERWOLVES STAR CALLS OUT ‘CHEATING A**E REFS’
Let it be known, the demise of the Minnesota Timberwolves was greatly exaggerated.
After losses to the lowly Hornets and Spurs there were suggestions the Timberwolves may not have been as good as their lofty record suggested.
But the Timberwolves went a long way to silencing their doubters once more on Tuesday, toppling the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-101 to regain top spot in the Western Conference standings.
Anthony Edwards led the scoring to the Timberwolves with 27 points and had quite a bit to say, having been pictured complaining about the “cheating a**e refs” right after the game.
“Imma take the fine because the refs did not give us no calls tonight,” Edwards told Bally Sports’ Lea B. Olsen.
“We had to play through every bump. Every grab. I don’t know. I don’t know how we won tonight. Big shoutout to my team, big shoutout to my coaches.”
The Thunder have now dropped back-to-back games but have far bigger concerns on the injury front with both Jalen Williams and Isaiah Joe going down in the loss.
Williams came down hard on his ankle and hopped on one foot to the locker room while the nature of Joe’s injury is unknown, with Daigneault revealing it but not specifying its nature in his post-game press conference.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 37 points for the Thunder after getting to the free throw line 16 times while Australian Josh Giddey added 13 points, having gone 3-for-3 early from deep.
Lu Dort (0-for-7 from deep) struggled with his outside shooting and line-ups with both him and Giddey on the floor continue to be a work in progress for Oklahoma City.
More than anything though, an injury to Williams — if serious — would leave a serious hole for the Thunder to fill, with the Santa Clara product averaging 18.6 points this season.
PELICANS CRUMBLE LATE AGAINST CELTICS
Elsewhere, the New Orleans Pelicans looked on track for a big win against Eastern Conference contenders Boston but fell short late as the Celtics finished on top 118-112.
The Pelicans started hot, jumping out to a 36-25 lead off the back of a balanced offence which saw New Orleans attacking the lane and in turn also opening up looks on the outside.
As a whole, the visitors shot 57.7 per cent from the field while making five 3-pointers in the first quarter.
The Pelicans were able to maintain a 60-50 lead heading into halftime but the Celtics opened the third on a 10-2 run and were able to then get ahead 76-73 heading into the final minutes of the period.
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A late 14-3 New Orleans run to close out the quarter seemed to put the Pelicans in a strong position heading into the fourth, at that point ahead 87-81.
But Boston went on to outscore New Orleans 37-25 in the final quarter of the game, with Jayson Tatum leading the way on 28 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
Tatum also had seven turnovers, with Australian Dyson Daniels playing strong defence at times when matched up against the Celtics superstar.
It wasn’t just Tatum though, with all five of Boston’s scorers hitting double figures as Jaylen Brown (22 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists) and Jrue Holiday (20 points) also stepped up.
The Pelicans also pretty much had all five starters in double figures outside of Herb Jones (nine points) with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram combining for 54 points.
It has been a tough stretch for the Pelicans recently, with the loss to the Celtics following back-to-back defeats to two other contenders in Milwaukee and Oklahoma City.
If there was a key point in Tuesday’s game where New Orleans could have pulled back the lead it came late in the piece when coach Willie Green called a timeout with the Celtics levelling the game at 94-all.
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At that point, he decided to bring Jones into the game for Williamson while Ingram replaced CJ McCollum.
While not much of an issue in a vacuum, the problem for the Pelicans was the fact it meant Ingram was running the offence with Jones, Daniels, Larry Nance and Trey Murphy III on the court.
While Murphy III is typically one of the team’s best outside shooting threats, averaging 36.3 per cent from downtown this season on 7.0 attempts per game, he has gone cold as of late.
In fact, in January Murphy III has only made 29.4 per cent of his 3-point attempts so he’s hardly been the consistent scoring option the Pelicans need.
Jones, Daniels and Nance Jr., meanwhile, rank sixth, ninth and 13th respectively in the New Orleans squad for 3-pointers attempted per game.
In other words, spacing was always going to be an issue for that sort a line-up and while both Daniels and Jones as a duo are a handful on defence, the tradeaway was a stagnant offence.
OTHER NBA SCORES
Cleveland Cavaliers 118 Los Angeles Clippers 108
Charlotte Hornets 92 New York Knicks 113
Brooklyn Nets 147 Utah Jazz 114
Miami Heat 105 Phoenix Suns 118
Memphis Grizzlies 94 Sacramento Kings 103
San Antonio Spurs 113 Washington Wizards 118
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