HOUSTON — Amen Thompson scored 23 points, Tari Eason added 20 and the Houston Rockets avoided elimination with a 115-96 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of the Western Conference playoff series Sunday night.Game 5 is Wednesday night in Los Angeles.The Rockets got their first win in the series after falling into an 0-3 hole despite missing Kevin Durant for a third game thanks to a balanced scoring attack. Durant sat out a second straight game with a sprained left ankle after missing Game 1 with a bruised right knee.“I’m proud of the guys,” Thompson said. “Backs against the wall, us coming to perform, but we know we can do that all the time. And I feel like today we were making shots. It’s the first time we were really making shots and we were capitalizing on the turnovers.”Houston’s entire starting lineup scored at least 16 points with Alperen Sengun adding 19, Reed Sheppard 17 and Jabari Smith Jr. 16.The Lakers were led by Deandre Ayton, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds before being ejected with about 5½ minutes left in the third quarter for a flagrant foul 2 on a hit to Sengun’s head. His output wasn’t nearly enough to allow the Lakers to close the series out on a night when LeBron …
