Lakers player grades: L.A. defeats Rockets again, wins season series

Due to a quirk in the NBA's scheduling this season, the Los Angeles Lakers visited the Houston Rockets for back-to-back games on Monday and Wednesday. They won Monday's matchup 100-92, and on Wednesday, they looked to take the season series and strengthen their hold on the third spot in the Western Conference.

They ended the first quarter on an 11-2 run, and they went into halftime looking good with a 67-55 lead. They did a good job capitalizing on the Rockets' misses and turnovers, which resulted in them scoring 16 fast-break points in the first half. But Houston outscored the Lakers 18-5 to start the third quarter and took the lead with 7:30 to go in the period, and from there, this contest was a back-and-forth affair.

After going up 102-96 with 8:40 left in the fourth quarter, Los Angeles fell behind 109-107, only to respond with a 13-2 run in crunch time to put this contest away. It earned a 124-116 win, which was its seventh win in a row and its 10th victory in its last 11 games.

The team shot an impressive 60.5% from the field and 46.9% from 3-point range, in contrast to Monday's grind fest when it was just 44% overall and 23.5% from beyond the arc. Defensively, the Lakers did a solid job of containing Kevin Durant once again. He scored just two points on three shot attempts in the first half, and while he shot 7-of-11 on the night, he only got to an anemic 18 points.

L.A. continued to send a second defender at him on the perimeter, forcing him to give up the basketball more than he prefers. With the game hanging in the balance, Durant got off just two shots and scored just three points in the fourth quarter.

L.A. now has a 44-25 record, and it is 1.5 games ahead of the fourth-place Minnesota Timberwolves. The Rockets. meanwhile, have fallen to fifth place in the West. Los Angeles now owns the tiebreaker against the Rockets, Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets, which will greatly help it finish the season with the third seed.

Marcus Smart: C

Smart wasn't hugely impactful in this game. He shot 2-of-7 from the field and 1-of-5 from downtown, and he finished with five points, three rebounds and four assists. But he was still able to muck things up on the defensive end, which resulted in him getting two steals.

Deandre Ayton: B

Ayton got involved quite a bit offensively and had 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting by halftime. He played 34 minutes and ended up making eight of his 10 shot attempts and scoring 16 points. He only had four rebounds, and he allowed Alperen Sengun, who didn't play on Monday, to post 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting. But Ayton also showed up on the defensive end with three blocked shots, and he also chipped in two assists on offense.

Austin Reaves: C-plus/B-minus

For the first time in a little while, Reaves was ineffective in terms of scoring. He had just four points on 2-of-6 shooting and didn't attempt a single free throw in the first half, and he went into the fourth quarter with seven points after not taking a single shot in the third quarter.

He did turn in five points in the first 1:32 of the fourth quarter to help the Lakers start the period off right. Reaves finished with 14 points on 4-of-9 overall shooting, but he did dish off eight assists against just one turnover while also obtaining three rebounds and blocking one shot in 39 minutes.

His defense has also seemingly improved lately, and there have been times late in games where he has effectively guarded big men such as Sengun and contained them well for short stretches.

LeBron James: A

James has settled in and accepted his new role as the Lakers' third scoring option. But on Wednesday, he called his own number early, and it was beneficial to his team.

He looked like his vintage self in the first half by making each of his eight shot attempts, scoring 18 points and throwing down a few emphatic dunks without turning the basketball over. He ended up going 13-of-14 from the floor, and he scored nine points in the fourth quarter, giving him 30 points in total. He also chipped in five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.

Luka Doncic: A-minus

Doncic's shooting was a bit subpar through the first three quarters of this game. But he came through big in the clutch and slammed the door shut on the Rockets.

With 3:14 to go, he hit a 3-pointer to put the Lakers ahead 113-109. He then had a pair of assists on alley-oop passes to Rui Hachimura and James for dunks, and with about a minute left, he stepped back and hit a 3-point dagger that gave his team a 120-111 advantage.

In total, Doncic was 12-of-25 from the field, 7-of-17 from 3-point land and 9-of-14 from the free throw line, giving him 40 points. He also had 10 assists, nine rebounds and one steal in 38 minutes. The NBA's leader in scoring average has now put up at least 30 points in each of his last seven games, and he's averaging 34.9 points a game in March.

Rui Hachimura: C-plus/B-minus

Hachimura didn't get involved much in L.A.'s offense during this game. But moments before his alley-oop dunk with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter, he hit a trey with 3:53 remaining to put the Lakers ahead for good.

He finished with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting while making both of his 3-point attempts, to go along with three rebounds and one block in 21 minutes

Jake LaRavia: B

LaRavia got only 10 minutes of playing time in this game, but he contributed fairly well during that time with five points on 2-of-4 shooting, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.

Jaxson Hayes: C

In 14 minutes, Hayes scored one point on a free throw and had three rebounds, one assist and one block.

Luke Kennard: C-plus/B-minus

Kennard scored five quick points late in the first quarter to help ignite the Lakers' 11-2 spurt. He finished with those five points, as well as one rebound, one assist and one steal, although he committed three turnovers in 18 minutes.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers player grades: L.A. defeats Rockets again, wins season series

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Joel Farabee and rookie Matvei Gridin scored in a shootout to give the Calgary Flames a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night.

Connor Zary scored early in the first period for Calgary, and Devin Cooley stopped 26 shots.

Dylan Holloway tied it for St. Louis early in the second. Joel Hofer made 31 saves.

After Farabee scored in the second round of the shootout to give Calgary a 1-0 lead, coach Ryan Huska turned to Gridin after Jimmy Snuggerud was stopped, and Gridin won it with a shot over Hofer’s glove.

The unlikely star performer of the opening 40 minutes was St. Louis video coach Elliott Mondou, with the Flames having three goals waived off after Blues’ coach’s challenges.

St. Louis had won eight consecutive games against Calgary,

Up next

Blues: At Vancouver on Saturday night.

Flames: Host Florida on Friday night.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl