Rockets Will Need to Make Life Much More Difficult for Lakers' LeBron James

It will get ugly if they don't.

Apr 18, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts against the Houston Rockets during game one of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The main talking point heading into the Houston Rockets' opening round postseason matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers has been centered around injuries. It's the matchup that has the most star players sidelined.

In Game 1, both Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic were out, due to injury. Austin Reaves, Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams were also all sidelined, due to injury.

Both teams were going to be able to dig deep into the depths of their respective rosters, to overcompensate for their litany of injury related absences. The Rockets seemed to have the advantage, due to their abundance of youth on the roster.

For the Lakers, LeBron James was seemingly going to be on his own, in theory, surrounded by a cast of unheralded role players. Sure, James is an all-time great (and arguably the greatest player of all-time, depending on who you ask).

But he's also 41 years old. And Father Time is undefeated, or so they say.

As it turns out, James made light work out of the Rockets and didn't even have to light up the score board in points. James sought to get the Lakers' role players involved and had eight assists in the first quarter, setting a personal record for assists in a single quarter in the postseason. 

All told, James had 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 1-of-2 from long range shooting distance. James turned in 13 assists, eight rebounds, two steals and a block in 38 minutes of action. 

Rockets coach Ime Udoka will clearly have to adjust and/or tweak his strategy on James. Even the 41-year-old version of James is better than most players across the league.

Former Rockets All-NBA and All-Star forward Charles Barkley explained the Rockets' misstep in Game 1, as it pertains to their containment of James, or lack thereof. 

"They didn't make LeBron tire himself out. At his age, these games are gonna come quicker."

The Rockets shouldn't need a reminder of James' ability to burn them, even at this age. Remember when James scored 30 points on 13-of-14 shooting during the second game of the Rockets' back to back game against the Lakers about a month ago?

Yes, I'm sure the Rockets would like to forget that, too. But past history is the best predictor of future behaviors, happenings and events.

The Lakers entered the series seeking to keep James' workload low. The Rockets will need to make it difficult for him. Certainly more than they did in Game 1.