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Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green said the team's plan for overtime was to attack Carmelo Anthony in isolation. The Rockets absolutely torched the Los Angeles Lakers in overtime as they won the overtime 19-10 to claim a 139-130 win.
Rockets rookie Green had one of the best games of his short NBA career as he dropped 32 points on the Lakers. "Our game plan was just to attack Melo and find the mismatch on the floor," Green said. "So when it came down to it, we were looking for Melo and I was attacking him every time." After the game, Anthony offered a short assessment of what happened in overtime.
"They caught fire in that overtime," Lakers forward Anthony said. "Everybody." After beating the Golden State Warriors on Saturday to snap a four-game losing streak, the Lakers have again lost two in a row. "It's right there, man," Anthony said.
"It's a play here, a play there. It's right there for us to kind of get over this hump."
Anthony had a chance to win the game
LeBron James drove to the basket on the final play of regulation but instead of attempting a layup, he passed the ball to Anthony.
Anthony missed a shot that would have given the Lakers a victory. "Ended up behind the backboard," James said. "I was a little bit off-balance and I could have forced a reverse layup, but I wasn't in the position to feel like I could have got a great look.
I could have got a decent look and I feel like Melo's look was a lot better than mine." Said Anthony: "I saw 'Bron going to the basket. I just wanted to try and get in his eyesight. I thought he had a layup, but after watching it, the replay on the bench, he was off-balance a little bit." The Rockets have the worst record in the NBA and it was just their 17th win of the season.
Lakers guard Russell Westbrook acknowledged after the game the Lakers should have approached the game much better. "We kind of messed around with the game and they had confidence throughout the night," said Westbrook, who had one of his finest games as a Laker with 30 points on 11-of-22 shooting (7-of-8 on free throws), eight rebounds, six assists and just one turnover.