LeBron James refused to blame the referees after the Los Angeles Lakers lost 119-115 to the Houston Rockets, having trailed by 22 points in the first half.

The Lakers were within a possession of completing a comeback in the final minutes when James' call for a timeout as Max Christie was about to commit a turnover off the inbounds was missed.

James claimed afterwards it should have been picked up on, but his team could not blame one incident for their loss.

He said: "That's why I called the timeout because I saw it go wrong.

"They played it good, stayed on top of everything. I called timeout when Max definitely still had the ball in his hands. It wasn't rewarded, but that happens. You don't lose a game because of that."

Final pic.twitter.com/RI2EVAUGEb
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 6, 2025

James nearly scored a triple-double during the game, with 21 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists to his name.

The Rockets had 49 rebounds compared to the Lakers' 39, though, with 18 offensive rebounds leading to 26 second-chance points.

Houston's Amen Thompson scored 16 boards in the win and notched 23 points in total.

James was clear that his side's rebounding efforts were the difference between victory and defeat.

He said: "We gave up too many second-chance points. Offensive rebounds killed us. We know they're a big team, we know they crash everybody and put a lot of pressure on.

"When you give up 18 offensive rebounds, and they had 26 second-chance points, it's going to be hard to win on the road.

"We did a very good job of not turning the ball over against a team that's very scrappy, who get their hands on a lot of pass deflections. But, we didn't give ourselves enough chances on the offensive end because we gave up so many second-chance points."