The only way Houston could become the first NBA team ever to come back from 3-0 was by first trailing the Lakers 3-1. Understanding —but not overreacting — to that will be a key for the Lakers as they get three more tries to close Houston out. (Free) https://t.co/TYv38VNJTJ— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) April 27, 2026
FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:
HOUSTON — No team in modern professional sports has ever erased a 3-0 series deficit without doing what the Rockets did Sunday in Game 4.
To come back from 3-0 — to be the first NBA team to ever do it and just the sixth in major North American pro sports — first, you have trail 3-1.
Pick your cliché or your favorite idiom: take it one game at a time; it’s the first to four, not the first to three; the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time; it’s not over until it’s over and so on. It’s simple.
The Lakers had a chance to win their first-round series with the Rockets on Sunday. And because they didn’t, now, they have a chance to lose their first-round series with the Rockets.
Those are the stakes in the playoffs, and after the Lakers lost 115-96, that’s the position they’re in. The Lakers shouldn’t overreact, they should merely recognize.
Rockets avoid sweep and win game 4
There should be zero comfort to be found in no NBA team ever finding a way to come back from 3-0 down. There should be zero comfort with history and conventional thinking on the Lakers’ side. History said they shouldn’t have a prayer without their two leading scorers, and it didn’t matter. Conventional thinking would’ve given them basically zero chance to be in position to sweep the Rockets, especially considering Houston’s collapse at the end of Game 3.
Scary, right? The good news is that the same things the Lakers used to win their first three games of this series are available to them as they try to win their fourth: experience, poise, pragmatism.
Asked if there was any comfort about going back to Los Angeles with a 3-1 lead, LeBron James reacted like the notion was absurd.
“Oh, hell no. No,” he said. “There’s no such thing as being comfortable until a series is done. No. None of us are.”
There was also the awareness of how things went so wrong Sunday, starting with the Lakers’ 24 total turnovers. James was responsible for eight of them, with too many instances of his dribble getting a little too loose or his grip too compromised in a maze of Rockets’ defenders. And the Rockets, like they have all series, again punished the Lakers whenever they extended possessions, scoring 20 second-chance points.
“We knew before the series even started,” James said of the Game 4 lessons. “We knew and we understand that if we want to win, if we want to win this series, that we have to protect the ball and we have to defensive rebound.”
Houston got more punch from more players, with Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason all having their best jump-shooting games of the series. And while Eason, in particular, barked at the Lakers’ bench after his best game of the postseason, the Lakers seemed confident enough in their defense’s ability to turn a couple of those faucets off.
“We’ll certainly look at the entire process on the defensive end and see where we can be better,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “They played a great game.”
The Lakers do have real offensive issues against the Rockets defense that haven’t gone away with Sheppard playing more minutes in the absence of Kevin Durant. They scored only 38 points in the second half of Game 3, six coming in those crazy final 30 seconds. They had 11 more in overtime of that game, but shot just 15-of-39 (38.5 percent) in the third and fourth quarters plus the extra frame.
Sunday night, the Lakers ended up shooting 50 percent from the field, but those numbers were bolstered by Deandre Ayton’s 9 of 12 and the deep part of the bench that played most of the final quarter. Most of the Lakers’ success so far this series has come from exploiting matchup advantages, and it’s plausible the Rockets have found adjustments to the methodology the Lakers have adopted without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves.
“I think that’s the biggest challenge we have … just the ball handling and downhill drivers, not having those guys,” Redick said.
Reaves is clearly getting close to being able to help. He’s been “questionable” on the last two Lakers’ injury reports before being downgraded to out. Game 5 will be one day shy of four weeks since he suffered his Grade 2 oblique strain.
The injury generally has a 4-6 week recovery timetable, but Reaves has progressed well and participated in live scrimmages with Lakers coaches and reserves while in Houston.
Redick was asked before Game 4 if external factors like the status of the series played any role in whether one of his star guards returns.
“I think it’s fair to consider everything. Austin and I had a conversation yesterday for a long time, and I think ultimately the athlete has to feel confidence,” Redick said. “And that’s always the final hurdle coming back from an injury, is the psychological component of it.”
With Reaves or without him, the Lakers are wide-eyed about what’s in front of them. For the final time in this series, they’ll have the benefit of an extra day of rest before facing a younger, more athletic team. They’ll have the benefit of playing up to two of the potentially three remaining games in their building. They know the pathway to winning — and the one Houston will take to try extending the series.
“It’s nothing that we haven’t seen, it’s nothing that we haven’t dealt with,” Marcus Smart said. “We just gotta be better. We understand it, we know it.”
Wednesday, they’ll have to show it. If not, Houston takes the second step towards an impossible comeback.