Another D. Justice article.... If posted, please delete. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6306527.html Kobe Bryant did what he usually does, but let’s not get sidetracked from the really important stuff. This defeat comes with alarm bells for the Rockets. When the game was there to be won, the Lakers won it. Who will win games for the Rockets when the playoffs begin, when it’s close in the final two minutes and the crowd is screaming and everything is coming undone? This was once Tracy McGrady’s role. At crunch time, the Rockets were his team. Maybe that’s the last piece of the puzzle for these Rockets. Everything else has worked out nicely now that the roster is stabilized and the roles are defined. Well, most of the roles. To win 50 games — which now seems likely despite Wednesday’s 102-96 loss to the Lakers — would be a nice accomplishment considering all that has happened. Luis Scola and Carl Landry have taken huge steps forward. The new point guard tandem of Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry has been solid. Yao Ming is playing the best basketball of his life. Is Artest the man? What the Rockets don’t yet know is where the ball will end up with the game on the line. Ron Artest is a tough, fearless competitor, but he’s not ever going to be the playmaker McGrady was. Artest brings a toughness — and let’s face it, a weirdness — McGrady never did. We can argue that trade-off until dawn, but if McGrady is healthy, he’s still on the short list of the NBA’s very best players. Cue Kobe. First, he brought the Lakers back from a 14-point second-half deficit. When the Rockets backed off, he nailed jumpers. When they crowded him, he sliced into the lane to score. When he was pushed, he pushed back. Then, in those final two minutes, he was at his all-world best, scoring here, scoring there, exchanging words with Artest and shoves with Shane Battier, ready to take on the world. Bryant scored 13 of his 37 points in the final 1:45 and could have gotten more if the Lakers had needed them. The Rockets were positioned to win and didn’t. They were 5-of-28 from 3-point land and turned the ball over 23 times. Yao was outplayed by Pau Gasol. It was a playoff-type atmosphere, from the loud crowd to the hard fouls to the tempers that occasionally flared. In the end, though, the Rockets were reminded both of Bryant’s greatness and of the fact they’re still feeling their way along in the post-McGrady configuration of the team. No comparison to Bryant is fair. He’s one of the two best basketball players on earth and one of the best ever. His work ethic and commitment to winning are unmatched. He’s no McGrady The Rockets want the ball in Yao’s hands as often as possible in crunch time, but the larger question is what happens when the double teams collapse around him. Artest is the obvious answer, but he may not be a closer in the way McGrady was at his best. His greatest strength can be his greatest weakness. He never backs down, will challenge anyone, is always willing to make it one-on-one. “Some of the things that make him a very good player are the things that get him in trouble,’’ Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “He’s fearless. He’ll challenge a guy out on the floor when he really doesn’t need to do that. He’s got the attitude that he can attack anybody. If anything, I think he gets too amped up.’’ He almost begged coaches for a one-on-one matchup with Bryant and then spent the final minutes of the game jawing with the Lakers star. “It was a fun game,’’ Artest said. “I kicked his (butt),’’ Bryant said. Amped up? Artest made two critical turnovers in the fourth quarter as his competitive fires raged in too many directions at once. He still might be the best option. He never tires, never quits. His energy rubs off on everyone. When he sees Yao getting tired, he gets in his ear. “Go harder, go harder,’’ he tells him. “When you’re tired, that’s when you’ve got to push through it.’’ In the end, Artest’s positives far outweigh his negatives, and since he’s willing to take the last shot, he’ll almost certainly end up taking it. But on a night when the Rockets went toe to toe with the NBA’s best team, when they were positioned to win, they didn’t. Stay tuned.
Admirable, but there's only so much he can do with his limitations. It's better to just accept Yao for what he is than to get frustrated when he keeps failing at what you wish he was.
This sums it up, but there were two plays that sealed the outcome 1 When Artest foolishly gambled for a steal and gave Kobe the wide-open 3 with the shot clock running out. Artest's flakiness kicked in on this play. Never should have happened. 2 When Kobe drove to the basket, Artest knocked the ball away but Kobe somehow ended up with it and got an "and 1" If those two plays don't happen and Artest doesn't take the dumb 3-pointers, the Rockets might have pulled this one out. Yao handled the double-teams very poorly but part of the problem was Shane not warning him Kobe was on the way and Shane not moving to get open near the basket to take advantage of it. I still say this game was a good dose of humility for the Rockets (and their fans) about the team's playoff chances. Just like every other team in the West, we do NOT want the Lakers in the 1st round.
