Luka Doncic (40 points) and LeBron James (30) lead Lakers to win over Rockets

HOUSTON– The combination of Luka Doncic and LeBron James was overwhelming and thrilling for all to see during the Lakers’ dynamic 124-116 victory over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center on Wednesday.

Doncic was one rebound away from a triple-double with 40 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.

James was a force with 30 points, missing just one of his 14 shots and adding five rebounds and two assists.

These are the main reasons why the Lakers extended their winning streak to seven straight games and helped them win the three-game series against the Rockets, 2-1, winning both games here, including one on Monday night.

The beauty of the night was when Doncic threw a no-look lob pass to James for a dunk, then when Doncic made a three-pointer with 58.4 seconds left for a 120-111 Lakers lead.

Doncic yelled at the crowd and ran onto the court shaking his head. When the Rockets called a timeout, the Lakers bench all ran towards Doncic, hugging him, slapping him and James nudging him for a job very well done.

The Lakers now have a 1-½ game lead over Minnesota for the third seed in the Western Conference.

James was fouled by Jabari Smith Jr. on a breakaway layup, forcing him to fall to the court and hold his right elbow.

James made two free throws with 5:39 remaining, tying the score at 105-105.

Doncic then took over when James went to rest on the bench.

Doncic’s jumper gave the Lakers a two-point lead and later his pass to Rui Hachimura for a corner three-pointer gave the Lakers a one-point lead after Amen Thompson scored for the Rockets.

Doncic scored a three-pointer for a 113-109 Lakers lead with 3:12 left.

James had a steal in the first quarter, then threw down a dunk with Alperen Segen chasing after him, causing James to look at Segun as he returned to the court, drawing cheers from amazed fans seeing the 23-year-old veteran still making scoring plays at 41 years old.

Early in the second quarter, James gave fans even more reason to cheer, catching a high lob pass from Marcus Smart and throwing down a one-handed dunk to oohs and aahs.

Luka Doncic celebrates after scoring a three-pointer against the Houston Rockets in the first half.

(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)

James wasn’t done, taking a pass from Jake LaRavia and throwing down another dunk later in the second quarter that brought the crowd out of their seats. This play gave the Lakers a 13-point lead.

James did it again with a tip dunk on a missed shot from Ayton at the end of the second quarter.

By the end of the first half, James had made all eight of his shots and scored 18 points, carrying the Lakers to a 12-point lead after the first 24 minutes of the game.

James was still giddy as he played in his 1,610th career NBA game, leaving him one step shy of Robert Parish’s all-time record (1,611).

The Lakers not only had to deal with a Rockets team looking for revenge for Monday night’s loss, but also had to deal with a Houston team that got All-Star center Segun back after missing the previous game with lower back pain.

Additionally, the Lakers knew that rebounding would be a problem for them, just like in Game 1.

But the Lakers also knew that their defense was solid and their offense powerful.

That was the case in the first quarter, when the Lakers opened a 35-26 lead behind 13 points from Doncic, eight from James and six from Ayton.

Their defense forced the Rockets into four turnovers, including two by Kevin Durant.

“I just think whatever our coverage is, we just have to do a better job of boxing out, like boxing out physically and not just looking at a guy and then turning and looking at the ball,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. “We’ve got to have some contact. It hurt us. We still earned chances to score (points) by seven, I think, because we did a really good job of forcing them into turnovers. And I thought offensively, when we used our head shots, we got some really good things in transition. (We) missed a couple threes in transition. Overall, we were 16 points below expectations on threes. There were some Segments of the game where I didn’t like what we did offensively, but that’s the nature of playing against this team. They’re going to blow it.