http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jy-rocketslakers111008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns LOS ANGELES – Ron Artest bumped Kobe Bryant with his hip and bumped him again. He jammed his forearm into Bryant’s back. He leaned into him with his 262 pounds until, finally, the NBA’s MVP would take no more. Bryant delivered a sharp chop to Artest’s arm. Artest pressed some more. Bryant chopped again. Artest drew closer, still, and Bryant came with more force, crunching his elbow into Artest’s sternum. The blow sent Artest flailing back a foot. He looked to the ref for help. No call came. The message from Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers was clear on Sunday night. They would not be bullied. “I think his team relies on his energy and his ability to intimidate the other team,” Bryant would later say of Artest. “It’s my responsibility to take that from him, let my team know that’s not going to happen.” The Houston Rockets had traded for Artest for games like this, to chase Bryant, hound him, make him work, and on this night it mattered not. The Lakers spotted the Rockets a 16-point lead, kicked the dust off their own legs then ran to a 111-82 victory, a stunning 45-point turnaround over the game’s final 35 minutes. Afterward, Bryant said the victory “didn’t really say much.” Right. Just like the Boston Celtics’ crushing victory over the Detroit Pistons earlier in the day, the Lakers’ rout of Houston officially put the rest of the league on notice: The road to the championship still goes through last season’s two finalists. “They’re going to be there all year long,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said, and that was before he saw what the Lakers did to his team. Lakers coach Phil Jackson had said the Rockets would be a “good test,” and they were, for about 13 minutes. The Lakers have now won their first five games by an average of 22.4 points. Should the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Hornets meet a similar fate when the Lakers visit this week, it will be fair to question whether the allegedly rugged Western Conference has already become a one-team race. The San Antonio Spurs will be fortunate to have four wins by the end of the month. Four hours before the Rockets and Lakers took the court, the Mavericks yielded 103 points to the previously winless Los Angeles Clippers. Now, it appears, the Rockets also have significant work to do before they can legitimately call themselves challengers to Bryant and his teammates. The rest of the West can blame the Celtics for this. Losing in last season’s NBA Finals gave the Lakers a renewed sense of purpose. Losing the way they lost gave them an edge. The Lakers extended the Finals to six games, but it felt like they were swept in four, especially after Boston closed out the series with a 39-point victory. They were too soft, too fragile. They couldn’t defend. The Lakers heard it all over the summer. “Going down the way they did in that last game, I think that one sits with you a little while, just getting absolutely crushed,” Rockets guard Brent Barry said. “If they can hold onto those feelings and harbor them…” Already, it looks like the Lakers have turned those feelings into fuel. Rockets forward Carl Landry twice elbowed Pau Gasol Sunday night. The second one was met by a hard glare and a few sharp words from the normally easy-going Spaniard. “I mentioned that to one of my coaches,” Jackson said, “that I think that woke up Pau.” Gasol went on to finish with 20 points and 15 rebounds, nearly double the 7.8 boards he averaged last season with the Lakers. He seems to have benefited as much as anyone from the return of the Lakers’ young center, Andrew Bynum. With Bynum, the Lakers now start two 7-footers, in addition to their 6-10 small forward Vladimir Radmanovic. “When you can bring Lamar Odom off the bench,” Barry said, “that says something.” It says the Lakers have put their length to good use, evidenced by the 10 shots they blocked against Houston. All too often, the Rockets seemed to drive into the long arms of some Laker. Bryant even once stuffed Yao Ming from behind, despite giving up nearly a foot in height to him. Jackson made improving the team’s defense the top priority in training camp, and the early results have been more than promising. The Lakers lead the league in defensive efficiency, yielding 86.4 points per 100 possessions. Do the Lakers feel they can impose their will on anyone? “No question,” Bynum said. Trevor Ariza, who missed the second half of last season with a foot injury, has further bolstered the Lakers’ bench, giving them an athletic forward who can defend as well as shoot with range. Before the game Jackson even lamented the Lakers’ “abundance of talent,” saying he was concerned about finding minutes for everyone. That could explain why rival team executives say the Lakers have made Luke Walton, Chris Mihm and, in at least one instance, Radmanovic available in trade discussions. Getting rid of the weighty contracts of either Walton (four years and about $22 million left after this season) or Radmanovic (two years, $13.3 million) could not only lessen the luxury-tax hit the Lakers will take this season, but also give them greater flexibility to re-sign Odom this summer. Nearly every other team in the league would love to have such problems. Thanks to the Lakers, Adelman now has an easier time identifying his own team’s warts. “They exposed a lot of things,” he said. Mainly that the Rockets aren’t ready to move into the top floor of the Western Conference. McGrady, who said he was battling the flu, missed 15 of 16 shots during his lost weekend in Los Angeles. Still missing Shane Battier, one of their better facilitators, the Rockets have been too reluctant to share the ball. “I think it was the worst game we have ever had,” Yao said. Regardless, Sunday’s verdict wasn’t as much a referendum on the Rockets as it was a statement about the Lakers’ dominance. The season is still young. The Lakers will lose, eventually, maybe as soon as Wednesday in New Orleans. But Bryant and his teammates have put the league on notice. This season they’re hitting back.
Lakers are cocky! only 5 games into the season and they are gloating about their greatness. Anything can happen between now and come post season. Beating a tired Rockets is no way a good litmus test.
lol i love how the article makes us seem like fouling bullies when they were the ones getting every call and we were getting beat up on a lot more plays! I did love the toughness of landry goin at it with odom and pau! Landry is making me think Scola could bring us a taller player...although i do love Scola!
WTF. BATTIER WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU WE NEED YOU NOW.. cough* We need Battier NOW. He is the brain behind the defense and doesn't rely on intimidation. Also he's a good shooter and knows how to hold this team together. I don't think people realize how crucial his role last year was. Wait till he starts and Artest is on the bench where he belongs. Don't get me wrong, Artest is good in small doses but damn, he is NOT the starter this team needs. Having three superstars at once is a bad idea. Rotating them is what needs to and will happen. We will not have these problems when Battier is back. His defense is the best in the league when you take into account his size and let's face it: The Battier effect even throws off players of Kobe's level.
Now I know why the Lakers wants to run to score up once the game was already decide. They just wanted to tell ppl how they destroy the Rockets. When in reality the game was close until the beginning of the 4th and wasn't closer because Kobe is the only player allow to block the ball after it hit the glass and create a 4 point swing at the end of the 3rd. All this happen when the Lakers couldn't have a better scenario for this game, at home, well rested, with tons of time to prepare for this game, Ref helping then to get back after a 15+ point deficit. A tired Houston team, no playing their best, not fully healthy, on the road, etc. But the started didn't did the damage, was their bench who did. The problem is a deep bench is great for a long season and for resting the starter during a long 82 games season, but not for the playoff, a 7 man rotation is what matter and their advantage will be reduce, big time. A healthy Houston is as talented in a 7 man rotation as the Lakers and there are plenty of time to prepare for the team and no back to back. Thats why experience veteran team have won the championship lately. The only thing they do by hyping this team that much is to prepare a scene for failure once since starting to go south, every team have their time in a season where their struggle, then the media, fans and pressure will get into them. Then you will see ppl wanting to trade Oden or calling Gasol soft, or Kobe selfish. Lakers fan are really bipolar (Just like cluthcfans). And the media love to use them for rating.
I don't think it's ron's fault to fail in locking Kobe up, because the advantage doesn't belong to artest when he matches up with Kobe, that's also why the lakers beat the pacers in 00's finals. In NBA as we all know, no one can lock up Kobe except Ray Allen, that also explains why the lakers lost to celtics in last season's finals. It's better to lock up other lakers than concentrating Kobe when meeting with lakers. In last season opening night game, we beat lakers even though Kobe scored 50+, and it also happens many times when Kobe score plenty of points but the lakers still lost the game. No way can you lock up Kobe but you can let him alone with locking up all the other lakers. But we permited the other lakers to score too many points and to grab too many bounds, there's no answer to kobe problem unless you have Allen.
That would be awesome to get Marion cause he can play the 3 or 4, rebounds great for his size, and also plays great D but I wouldn't want Chuck to be in the trade. There wouldn't be a Chuck-Wagon anymore.
Funny, no mention of how almost every trip down the court for the Fakers, the whistle blew in their favor. No mention of two clear offensive fouls when they rammed Hayes to the ground going their way or the clear Kobe goaltend on T-Mac's layup, or Bynum putting both forearms and shoving Yao everytime he got the ball (clear fouls that never got called). The refs weren't the main reason we lost, but they do factor into it. All in all, the Fakers are peaking now, I'd rather take our lumps now and build momentum going into May and June, that's when it really counts. People need to get a grip, we're 7 games in and the sky is falling attitude is ridiculous. Go Rockets!