Lakers vs. Rockets Preview and Game Thread: Big game at home

The Lakers’ three game homestand begins with another important game against the Rockets on Monday.

The Lakers are back on their home base, where they will be greeted by the team that owns sole possession of the second seed in the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets. This is another big game for the purple and gold, who are coming off a huge victory against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Lakers will see the Rockets twice in the last two weeks of the regular season.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets

When: 7 PDT, Mar 31

Where: Crypto.com Arena

Watch: TNT, Spectrum SportsNet

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The Lakers’ much-needed road victory over the Grizzlies on Saturday showed a lot about their character. Coming off a devastating loss to the Bulls, JJ Redick challenged LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves in meeting before the Grizzlies game, and boy did they respond.

L.A. picked themselves up and secured a dub that keeps them in the fourth spot of the competitive Western Conference standings, at least for now. The goal is to stay right there or perhaps climb even higher. They have a golden opportunity to do the latter if they beat the Rockets in their next two meetings.

Houston, who will be on the second night of a back-to-back for this one, were just recently on an eight-game winning streak before the Denver Nuggets snapped it last week. They’ve been rolling and are actually playing really good basketball right now. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they own the league’s fourth best defense (109.8), which has been consistently superb all year. It has also helped them cover up some of their flaws on the offensive side of the ball.

The thing about this young, driven and gritty Rockets team is that they can really control the paint. They’re the league’s best rebounding team for a reason and average 51.1 points in the paint. That’s one of the reasons why they’re a bottom tier (26th) 3-point shooting team, so expect them to attack the Lakers in the paint.

This is where the question of whether or not JJ Redick will stick to his small ball lineups come into play. We’ve seen Jaxson Hayes’ minutes go up and down over the last couple of weeks depending on the matchup. It’ll be interesting to see how Redick gameplans against the Rockets’ height, size, speed and athleticism.

On top of that defensive game plan, it’ll be yet another important game for the Lakers’ big three. In my last preview against the Grizzlies, I said that last game was the perfect time for Reaves, James and Dončić to all play well because they really needed it and true enough, they delivered. The Lakers’ offensive ceiling is just borderline unstoppable and if that’s the case again on Monday night, the Rockets will significantly be challenged to keep up.

Of course, that win versus Memphis wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for essential contributions from Gabe Vincent, Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura, who all combined for 39 points. Los Angeles could really use that again.

Given the Rockets’ impressive lockdown defense, this team must make shots. In no way should Jalen Green, Alperen Şengün or Amen Thompson be the best players on the floor.

This game will be another big challenge for the purple and gold, which they should welcome to see how ready they truly are for the playoffs. They proved that they can show up and thrive when the stakes are high in that victory against the Grizzlies and now it’s time for them to show once more that they can take their game to another level and defeat even tougher competition in the Rockets.

Let’s see if Los Angeles can do just that on Monday.

Notes and Updates

• For the Lakers’ injury report, LeBron James (left groin strain) is probable while Maxi Kleber (right foot surgery recovery) is out.
• The Rockets have yet to release an injury report for this one but it’s worth noting that Tari Eason (rest) didn’t play against the Suns. Dillon Brooks was ejected in this game versus the Suns, but since that was his 15th tech, he will not be suspended for Monday’s game.
• We will be live on Playback for this game, so be sure to join us!

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.