HOUSTON — At the end of the Lakers’ bench sat Anthony Davis and LeBron James, both of them dressed in their gear, both unable to help their teammates because of injuries.
Davis didn’t play because the Lakers held him out of the back-to-back game to keep his right foot stress injury from flaring up and James was out with right foot soreness.
So, it was left up to D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Austin Reaves and the rest of the group to carry on for the Lakers against a Houston Rockets team with the second-worst record in the NBA.