{"id":133727,"date":"2025-04-11T15:40:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T19:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=133727"},"modified":"2025-04-11T15:40:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T19:40:49","slug":"lebron-lakers-two-milestones-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/11\/lebron-lakers-two-milestones-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron, Lakers Can Reach Two Milestones vs. Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/span>Lakers<\/span><\/a> are fresh off of a thrilling win over the Dallas Mavericks that saw <\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/a> torch his former team and LA clinch a guaranteed <\/span>playoff<\/span><\/a> spot. Now, ahead of their duel against the young and hungry Houston Rockets, the purple and gold have a chance to record more history\u2014both for themselves and one of their franchise cornerstones.<\/span><\/p>\n

LeBron, Lakers Can Reach Two Milestones vs. Houston Rockets<\/b><\/h2>\n

James Can Eclipse Reggie Miller for Made Threes<\/b><\/h3>\n

LeBron James<\/span><\/a> has reached nearly every NBA milestone imaginable throughout his career, but tonight, he has a chance to move up an esteemed list with elite company. James needs just three triples to surpass Hall-of-Famer <\/span>Reggie Miller<\/span><\/a> for sixth all-time in <\/span>made three-pointers<\/span><\/a>. Miller\u2014a five-time All-Star and member of the NBA\u2019s 75th Anniversary Team\u2014drained 2,560 threes throughout his 18-year career. James, who passed the <\/span>2,500 threes mark<\/span><\/a> in February, sits at 2,558 throughout his 22 seasons in the league.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three was always in LeBron\u2019s arsenal, but he\u2019s come to rely on it more as a Laker compared to his stints in Cleveland and Miami. Since signing with the purple and gold in 2018, James has averaged two made threes per game in every season as a Laker, and roughly 30% of his shot attempts came from the perimeter in that span. This season, under podcast co-host turned head coach JJ Redick, LeBron has made 2.1 threes per game out of 5.7 attempts (37.8%)\u2014honoring <\/span>a request Redick made<\/span><\/a> this past summer. For a team that\u2019s notoriously struggled from distance, it\u2019s encouraging to know that their leader can still take and make threes at a respectable clip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Can Clinch a Top-Three Seed<\/b><\/h3>\n

Beyond LeBron, the Lakers can reach a notable mark in Redick\u2019s inaugural season: a top-three seed in the bloodbath that is the Western Conference. This year, seeds no. 3-8 have enjoyed little separation in the standings, and there\u2019s a chance the playoff picture could come down to Sunday\u2019s regular season finale.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if the Lakers take care of business against a Rockets squad ready for liftoff, they\u2019ll finish top three with <\/span>home-court advantage in the first round<\/span><\/a>. Redick previously discussed the importance of home-court advantage, saying \u201cit would be nice\u201d to begin a series at Crypto.com Arena and nodding to LA\u2019s successful home record, which <\/span>currently stands at 30-10<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time the Lakers finished top-three in the West was in their <\/span>2020 championship season<\/span><\/a>, when they held the top spot with a 52-19 record. Going further to a true 82-game slate, their last top-three finish came in 2012, when they lost to the Thunder in the second round, 4-1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Redick and Lakers\u2019 \u201cPlayoff Mentality\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n

Last week, Redick emphasized the \u201cplayoff mentality\u201d the Lakers must carry in the home stretch\u2014a message that rings true ahead of this year\u2019s postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I think we all recognize the magnitude of each game and the urgency with which we have to play each game,\u201d <\/span>he said<\/span><\/a>. \u201cI think once you get to the playoffs, anybody who has been there, we have a bunch of guys who have won championships and a bunch of guys who have made deep playoff runs, the urgency you have to play with on each possession, that\u2019s what\u2019s exhausting about the playoffs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers have the star power and the supporting cast to make some noise in the playoffs, hoping to cap it off with an 18th banner in the rafters. There\u2019s still a ways to go before that dream becomes reality, but they have the talent and experience to be playing in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lakers are fresh off of a thrilling win over the Dallas Mavericks that saw Luka Doncic torch his former team and LA clinch a guaranteed playoff spot. Now, ahead of their duel against the young and hungry Houston Rockets, the purple and gold have a chance to record more history\u2014both for themselves and one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":133731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,31,26,62],"tags":[50041,2279,38,1133,596],"class_list":["post-133727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-2025-nba-playoffs","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba-playoffs"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133727"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133737,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133727\/revisions\/133737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}