Covington Knockout Lakers in his Debut, Houston Rockets Win in Los Angeles, 121-111

The Houston Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Lakers on the road tonight, with Robert Covington hitting crucial two downtown shots. The final result was 121-111 for the guests from Texas who made quite the surprise with this one.

Covington first made a three to push his team to 115-111, and later another one to seal the match and give 9 points of advantage to the guest, 120-111. It seems that the trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves had the logic for the Rockets, although many suggested otherwise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqNI4WZGSgU

Covington scored 14 points, had 8 boards, and four assists, also with two steals and blocks each. He made four of Houston’s 19 threes.

“Covington was defending at a high level, shoot the heck out of a basketball as he did tonight, and I am happy he’s on our team,” Russell Westbrook said about his new teammate.

Meanwhile, the former MVP dropped 41 points on the LAL tonight, smashing the No.1 title contenders in all the aspects for the game. Russ also eclipsed the 20,000 points limit after this contest.

“We did what we supposed to do when we came in, competed at a high level, defensively, for the most part, and got the win,” said Westbrook who was using the fact that the hosts doubled James Harden all the time and that he had a lot of space in front of him.

The game was more like a playoff one, with the teams trading buckets all the time, and without some big runs. Houston entered the final period with a slight lead, which extended to seven points at one moment, but the purple and gold responded and took the advantage midway through the sequence.

However, the finish was entirely Rockets’. They ended the night with a 19-5 run, which just knocked out the home team. Believe it or not, the Rockets are 5-0 when they start with the lineup 6-foot-6 and under.

Westbrook was shooting 17-for-28 and had 8 rebounds and 5 assists, also adding 8 turnovers. James Harden was under constant pressure from the Lakers’ defense, and his offensive stats were not good at all. The Beard scored 14 points, shooting 3-for-10 from the field and missing five of his six threes. But he contributed with seven boards and assists.

Eric Gordon added 15 points, Danuel House Jr. 13, and PJ Tucker 11. Even though Rockets played without a real center, they had just one rebound fewer than the hosts, 37-38.

On the other side, the best player was Anthony Davis with 32 buckets, 13 boards, and three steals and blocks each. AD would shortly visit the locker room because of his injury but got back on the court afterward. However, he couldn’t prevent the loss against the guests from Texas.

“We did have some miscommunication,” said AD about the defense on Westbrook after the match.

LeBron wasn’t in the mood for shooting threes tonight as he was a couple of nights ago. LBJ made just one in his eight attempts, but he was pretty active in all other aspects of the game. King ended the night falling short one assists in posting another triple-double as he already had 15 boards. Avery Bradley and Danny Green scored 15 points each, and Alex Caruso had 12.

Up next, the Lakers (38-12) head for San Francisco to meet the Warriors on Friday night and, after that, come back home to face the Suns. Meanwhile, the Rockets (33-18) will play against the Suns in Phoenix already tomorrow, and after that host the Jazz on Sunday.