Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in English The Lakers have “recognized the magnitude” of every game they have to play as the season winds down, their coach JJ Redick saying they have to play each of them with an urgency to determine their own playoff seeding fate in the super-competitive Western Conference.It really is simple for the Lakers: Keep winning and that will improve their seeding in the unforgiving West.And win the Lakers did on Monday night, pulling out a gritty 104-98 win over the Rockets at Crypto.com Arena. It was an especially significant win because the fourth place Lakers are chasing second-place Houston in the Western Conference standings.LeBron James sealed the game with two free throws with 11.1 seconds left and an emphatic block of Alperen Sengun with eight seconds remaining, keeping the Lakers ahead by four. Lakers star LeBron James controls the ball in front of Houston Rockets point guard Fred VanVleet during the first half Monday. (Ric Tapia / For The Times) James finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists.But two role players helped swing critical momentum in the Lakers’ favor. Dorian Finney-Smith came off the bench to score a season high 20 points, making a season-best six of 11 three-pointers. He rebounded the ball well (six), passed to open teammates (three assists), played his usual stellar defense (three blocks) and didn’t back down while while guarding Houston 6-foot-11 center Steve Adams. They pushed and shoved each other, getting technical fouls midway through the third quarter.Finney-Smith completed his night making two free throws with 3.2 seconds left to seal the final score.Gabe Vincent came off the bench to contribute 20 points, hitting six of 13 three-pointers to go along with four rebounds.The Lakers and Rockets have split the first two games of the season and play once more at Crypto.com Arena on April 11. It will be another important game that will determine the seeding tiebreaker if the two teams end the season with identical records. After the win, the Lakers are 2 ½-games behind the second-seeded Rockets and one game behind the third-seeded Denver Nuggets.With seven regular-season games remaining, the Lakers still are in the mix for a good seed and home-court advantage.“I think it’s intensified with the entire group — coaches and players,” Redick said of the seeding battle. “That’s not to say that we need to talk about it every day. I know the players have talked about it with each other. We’ve talked about it as a group, we talked about it as a staff and I still think one of the hardest things in life is navigating control versus non-control. And in some ways, we can control what seed we get. We can control if we make the playoffs. We have to go out and play well. Even at this stage of the season where we’ve had a couple of bad stretches, we still can kind of control where we’re seeded and if we make the playoffs.”By the half, the Lakers and Rockets were tied at 48-48, with Luka Doncic (20 points) making one of two free throws with 1.3 seconds left in the second quarter.Amen Thompson led the Rockets with 20 points, while Dillon Brooks chipped in 16.
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