Battier moved his right foot as well as his upper body to prepare for the collision while Odom was in the air. Watch the video again. I reversed my initial claim that the call was wrong not because I changed my mind that Battier wasn't set. He definitely was not, and I stand by my observation. You probably want to watch the video clip of Chuck Hayes drawing a charge on Brandon Roy in the final seconds of the Portland game. That ought to be the text book way of taking a charge. Battier is surely capable of doing it too, but this is not one of his finest moments. The reason that I later said the call was good was because of the interpretation of the charging/blocking rule I found on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_foul#Charging_and_blocking Battier wasn't still, but he moved only sideway, not forwards. He had one foot on the floor. He was hit on the torso. All these criteria were met. But all these years I had been heavily influenced (and I bet most, if not all of you, too) by all those NBA play-by-play commentators (the likes of Doug Collins, who are supposed to be NBA experts) who stress that the player who takes a charge needs to be standing still and have both feet on the floor, I judged Battier committed a blocking foul. With these said, I maintain that most of Yao's blocking fouls should be charging calls against the offensive players he was guarding, if the same rules and interpretations of the rules were consistently applied.
Per Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, Odom participated in shootaround this morning and will be a game-time decision. Sounds like he'll play. http://my.lakers.com/blogs/2009/05/12/odom-a-game-time-decision/
This is probably good news, since LO is not exactly a player I would expect to have a big comeback game by fighting through the extreme pain which I am sure accompanies a bruised lower back.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-rockets13-2009may13,0,43785.story If Odom's hurt/stiff, which Jackson said today, I honestly wonder if the Rockets' might be better off with him playing than with a healthy replacement.
The game is too crucial for him not to play. May see some limited action but I expect him to at least suit up for the game.
