About this episode

The Lakers suffered a significant loss to the Rockets in Game 4 of the playoffs, with poor shooting and high turnovers impacting their performance.

Everyone was wondering what it might look like if Houston finally found the range offensively while the Lakers went cold. The answer: a 115-96 Game 4 loss to the Rockets in Houston. It was an ugly set of outputs for the Lakers, who were obviously trying (it's the playoffs) but didn't have a lot of juice. The scoring collapsed. The turnovers (24, overall) were frequent. The defense wasn't great. But mostly the Lakers looked really sluggish on O while the Rockets finally hit some shots. The leading scorer for LA was Deandre Ayton with 19, and he was ejected after a questionable Flagrant 2 call. LeBron finished with 10 points on 2-9 shooting, and his nine assists were spoiled by eight turnovers. LA got 16 points combined from Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart. The Lakers played once again without Austin Reaves, who warmed up and decided he wasn't quite ready. Houston, meanwhile, was without Kevin Durant, who in theory could miss another week or two. So the series moves to Los Angeles for Game 5, a game the Lakers would very, very much like to win and close this thing out. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: The Lakers get thumped in Game 4. SEGMENT 2: LeBron tired, limited, and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Andy Kamenetzky, Brian Kamenetzky

Topics covered

• Lakers performance
• NBA playoffs
• Game 4 analysis
• LeBron James
• turnovers
• offensive struggles
• Houston Rockets

Keywords

• Lakers
• Rockets
• Game 4
• LeBron James
• Deandre Ayton
• NBA playoffs
• turnovers
• Austin Reaves
• Kevin Durant

Sponsors

5-Hour ENERGY, KALSHI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Houston Rockets

More episodes of Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

• What Went Wrong in Game 4, and How the Lakers Can Improve in Game 5 · April 27, 2026 · 19 min
• COMEBACK! Lakers Score Improbable Game 3 Win in OT, Lead Series 3-0 · April 25, 2026 · 28 min
• Deandre Ayton Is Ready to Play Defense, and Is a Product of Good Lakers Culture · April 24, 2026 · 18 min
• Reaves Upgraded, Durant Downgraded for Game 3, Lakers Winning the Little Battles · April 24, 2026 · 36 min
• Are the Lakers Favorites Now vs. Rockets? Can LA's Role Players Step Up in Houston? · April 23, 2026 · 26 min
• Why Are the Lakers Controlling the Series Against Houston? Can the Rockets Come Back? · April 23, 2026 · 39 min

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