Visits: 12
LeBron James said he and his team-mates are trying to continue the Los Angeles Lakers’ championship legacy after leading the team into the Western Conference Finals.
The Los Angeles Lakers are going to the Conference Finals for the first time in a decade, ending the longest drought in franchise history.
James is going there for the first time since 2018. For him, that also qualifies as ending a drought.
2:01 James scored 29 points and the Lakers wrapped up their first trip to the Western Conference Finals since 2010 by topping the Houston Rockets 119-96 on Saturday night in Game 5 at Walt Disney World.
“It’s the reason I wanted to be a part of this franchise, to take them back to a place that they were accustomed to being – and that’s competing for a championship,” James said. “It’s an honour for me to wear the purple and gold, and for us, we just try to continue the legacy.”
Kyle Kuzma scored 17 points, Markieff Morris had 16, Danny Green added 14 and Anthony Davis finished with 13 for the top-seeded Lakers. They will play either the second-seeded LA Clippers or third-seeded Denver Nuggets for the West title in a series that won’t begin before Wednesday.
James is going to the Conference Finals for the 11th time overall – six with Cleveland, four with Miami and now with the Lakers. It’s his ninth time getting to this round in the last 10 seasons; the one miss in that stretch was last season, when his inaugural year with the Lakers fell apart because of injury and the team missed the playoffs.
0:11 “The opportunity to play for a championship, that is what we are all here for, that is what we all signed up for,” James said.
James Harden scored 30 points, Jeff Green scored 13 and Russell Westbrook had 10 for Houston.
1:56 “Tough season for us,” Harden said. “Obviously, it didn’t end like we wanted it to. Just got to figure it out.”
And now that the offseason is here, the speculation about coach Mike D’Antoni’s future will ramp up. His contract with the Rockets is now complete, the sides couldn’t agree on terms of any extension a year ago, and he has been mentioned as a candidate for the vacancies in Indiana and Philadelphia.
“We have got a great organisation, great city, great fans, team’s great,” D’Antoni said. “I mean, everything’s good here. We’ll see what happens, but I couldn’t ask for a better situation. I had four years and hopefully it keeps going. You just never know.”
It was a tough end to a tough week for the Rockets.
2:02 Westbrook exchanged heated words with a fan in the family section during the fourth quarter; NBA security asked the man, identified by ESPN as a brother of Lakers guard Rajon Rondo, to leave the game.
“He started talking crazy,” Westbrook said. “I don’t play that game.”
Houston won Game 1 of the series and lost the next four. Saturday’s finale came a day after Danuel House – who averaged 11.4 points in nine playoff games this season – was told to leave the bubble. An NBA investigation showed he had an unauthorised guest in his room for several hours earlier this week, and he missed the last three games of the series.
“It affected us,” Harden said, who called the situation disappointing.
Houston finished the postseason with a 5-7 record.
