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First Take

Hour 2: What's the Lakers Recipe to Take Down the Rockets?

First Take

ESPN Radio

Sports

4.05.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

First Take resumes with 3 cups Vintage LeBron, 1/3 cup Luke Kennard 40%+ from three, and 2 tsp. Marcus Smart defensive disruption. (0:00) Then Kawhi Leonard planted roots in LA six years ago. Is his time as a Clipper running out? (10:30) Next, Mel Kiper Jr. convinces Stephen A. that Sonny Styles to the Cowboys at 6 (after a trade) may be the missing piece to their much maligned defense! (22:40) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:24.7

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0:31.1

Tomorrow is the final night of the NHL regular season, and our ESPN doubleheader starts 7.30 Eastern, 5.30 Mountain Time with

0:38.2

the Blues and the Mammoth. Then the aves will host the Crackin. Like everything else, both

0:42.3

available on the ESPN app. Two future Hall of Famers will face off in the first round of the NBA

0:51.1

playoff Saturday night on ABC as Kevin Durant and the Rockets will take on LeBron James

0:55.1

and the Lakers since April 5th,

0:57.2

LeBron James has averaged over 25 points and 11 dimes.

1:00.2

Since leaving the Warriors, Kevin Durant is looking to get back on top

1:03.6

as he's averaging 30 points, 49% from the field.

1:06.9

However, he is a 13 and 18 record in the play since 2021. Meanwhile, J.J. Reddick told

1:13.6

ESPN's David Mediman that Luca Donchich and Austin Reeves are out indefinitely and that he

1:19.1

will not have an update on their playoff status this week at the very least. Reddick also spoke on

1:23.9

what the Lakers will need to do to win their first round series against Houston. Here it is, listen.

1:45.2

Taking care of the basketball and boxing out. That's the series. Scheme, personnel, obviously important. But if we don't take care of the ball, we don't box out, we're not going to win the series. They're going to try to come in and punk us. And if you wouldn't allow that, you will be punk. I don't think we have any guys that's going to be punk on this team. So you might not be the most athletic, the strongest,

1:48.5

but we got to have the most hard. As a reminder, Houston is heavy favorites in this series. But what

1:55.6

is the recipe for the Lakers to take down Houston? Is it as simple as taking care of the basketball

2:00.8

and boxing out? Wendy, what do you think? Well, that would help. There's no doubt about that. When you play the Rockets, there's a couple of things that you're top of the line. And I'm sure J.J. Reddick is eyeball deep in all of the options at his disposal to try to figure out a game plan that's going to work.

2:18.1

He obviously mentioned right there the rebounding.

2:20.8

Houston's one of the great offensive rebounding teams of the decade.

...

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