Alperen Sengun’s 33 points Not Enough As Rockets Fall To Lakers, LeBron James Scores 48
Sengun #Sengun
Despite Alperen Sengun’s career night, LeBron James proved to be too much as the Houston Rockets fell to the Los Angeles Lakers Monday night.
The Los Angeles Lakers had no answer for Alperen Sengun Monday night.
Sengun had the best performance of his young career inside Crypto.com Arena with a career-best 33 points (14-of-17 FG, 2-2 3PT) for the Houston Rockets during the final game of their four-game California road trip.
Unfortunately, Sengun’s one-man show wasn’t enough to prevent the Rockets from dropping their 11th consecutive game in a 140-132 loss.
Sengun also recorded his 22nd career double-double with 15 rebounds, six assists and four blocks.
Similar to the Lakers’ defensive problems with Sengun, the Rockets replicated the issues defending LeBron James.
The 38-year-old future Hall-of-Famer scored 48 points on 16-of-26 shooting, 5-of-10 from deep, which marked the fifth time James scored 30 or more points since his birthday on Dec. 30.
Sengun’s career night began with 11 first-quarter points on 5-of-6 shooting when the Rockets closed the period down 37-35. He recorded 20 by the end of the first half, but Houston trailed the Lakers 73-61 by halftime.
Eric Gordon was the only player who came close to matching Sengun’s output by scoring 15 of his 19 points during the first half.
Sengun’s one-man show continued midway through the third quarter until Jalen Green found his rhythm. The Rockets trailed the Lakers by 16 points before closing the quarter on a 13-5 run.
Green erupted for 11 points during the quarter to pull the Rockets within four points entering the final period (102-98). He finished with 23 points.
The Rockets fell behind by 10 early in the fourth quarter but used a 7-0 run to cut Los Angeles’ lead down to 119-116 with 5 minutes and 6 seconds left in the game.
Houston and Los Angeles went back and forth during the final five minutes. The turning point that gave the Lakers some breathing room came with 1 minute and 24 seconds left when Green committed a turnover that led to a transition dunk for Russell Westbrook.
The Rockets were down 131-129 at the time of Green’s turnover.
The Lakers had four additional players who assisted James in the scoring department. Westbrook came off the bench and added 24 points (9-16 FG), while Kendrick Nunn provided Los Angeles with an extra lift with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
A small historic night for LeBron:
James, in his 20th season, played in his 1,400th career game. And after scoring 48, he now needs 315 points before surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s All-Time scoring leader.
A Better fourth quarter:
After scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, Houston scored 34 points in the period against the Lakers.
Up Next:
After going winless on their current road trip, the Rockets will return to the Toyota Center Wednesday night for a match against the 11-34 Charlotte Hornets. Tip-off is slated for 7 PM CT.
You can follow Coty M. Davis on Twitter at @CotyDavis_24
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