Everyone is going to talk about how fired up the Lakers will be on Wednesday night, about how improved they are going to be. Well, shhh...don't tell anyone, but the Rockets didn't play as well as they can. Except for Yao and Artest, I felt the entire team had a sub-par offensive game. With the rest of the starters, Luis Scola missed all but one of those wide open mid-range he usually drills, leading him to pass up the shot and throw the ball away. Aaron Brooks had a tremendous 3rd quarter, but only after passing up wide open 3's and throwing the ball away. Shane Battier shot some of the ugliest looking 3's outside of Derek Fisher and ended the game with one field goal. Offensively, the bench had their worst game of the season. Von Wafer was a complete non-factor. Carl Landry fumbled away easy lay-ins. Brent Barry? Please. But on the plus side, Chuck Hayes had 0 shot attempts. The Rockets lost the turnover battle. The Lakers had more assists, rebounds, steals and blocked shots. The Lakers had double the amount of offensive rebounds. Shane Battier got elbowed above the eye and started bleeding rivers of blood that made Ricky Hatton jealous. Yao Ming got hit on the knee which ballooned up to the size of a cantaloupe as he layed on the court with his eyes welling up with tears. The Lakers came back and took the lead in the 4th quarter like the majority of the world thought they would. All of this and Rockets led by 11 points before the layup and free throw drill started in the final minute. Everyone is wondering what the Lakers can do to come back and take control of the series. But the real question is what can the Rockets do to step on their throats and not let them get back up. Offensively, it is not hard to imagine the Rockets playing better. And if they keep up the defensive effort they have shown for the entire playoffs... Watch out world. Prepare to be shocked.
Rockets are listening to me. I said they have to turn that Big 3 (odom, gasol, kobe) into a Big 1.5 which is exactly what happened. Kobe had his, Gasol/Odom were combined 1/2. As long as Rockets do that they are going to win. This Lakers team is like Spurs teams of the past (Gino, Parker, Duncan) but they have more length. Rockets always managed to play great vs. those old Spurs teams I don't see why we can't against the Lakers as well.
Ofc we can play better, but so can the lakers. I'm so happy for the win tonight but we can't be over excited about this. This is just one game, we still need to take it as 0-0 in the following games.
Agreed. Von and Luis will play much better. But what the hell is Brent Barry doing on the court? He should not be getting minutes.
He was on the floor because something was wrong with Wafer's head. It just wasnt in the game tonight.
Wafer let Shasha Vujacic get to his head. He should realize how SV plays and is out there to stir things up.
Lakers were 2-18, Rockets were 5-18 I think the Rockets attempted at least three full court buzzer beaters, as well... Luis and Von can step up BIG in Game 2.
Rox were 5-18 (28%) from the field, while the Lakers were 2-18 (11%). Point taken as Rox can improve on their shot (as can Lakers) espically starting out the game...everyone except Artest weren't shooting well.
You're right 5-18, getting late, but if Shane can stroke the 3 like he has been doing lately, this should make us even better. He did a great move when he drove the baseline for the basket. Brooks came close to hitting one of those full court buzzer beaters.
I agree, Von Wafer didn't really show up, Scola and Landry really didn't do much offensively. I think we can play better and rebound the ball better. You have to take into account though, they played terrible also. Kobe won't miss those open shots, as won't Gasol. Odom will start to hit those mid-range jumpers and Ariza will most likely start to hit those 3's. We just have to defend them better by closing out. You can expect to see more of Jordan Farmar too.
I think Phil Jackson would have taken winning the rebound battle, Houston turning it over 18 times, and Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier shooting 1-9 from 3 point land. If you had told me that before the game I would have predicted Lakers by 10 unless Yao went for 50. Rockets did a lot of things well, but did a lot of things poorly also.
Artest hitting shots coupled with the strong D on Kobe helped... if not for that, we'd have been sunk.
I think the thing that upset me the most, was how Doug Collins over..and over commented that "The Rockets are playing near perfect basketball, and the Lakers just aren't themselves." Acting as if we made every play the entire night. The fact is we had many costly turn overs, and gave the Lakers many second chance opportunities.
Our frontcourt guys can play better. Both Scola and Yao were rushing their shots in the first half. They missed plenty of shots they normally make. Landry has a tough defensive assignment in guarding Odom. That matchup is going to be one to watch. . But I thought a big factor last night was the Lakers' defense, which, perhaps due to their long break, was too inconsistent. The Rockets were given a lot of opportunities and they took advantage. I expect LA to play much better defense for the rest of the series, and it'll be interesting how we respond.
