Hyde a no-show as Jekyll returns to Lakers.
All week long, the media types have been probing the Lakers’ collective psyche like Grissom examining a body on CSI. (OK, so Grissom’s off the show, but you get the idea). After two unconscionably bad games in Houston, the Lakers’ maturity, their heart, and their desire (but never their talent) was under more scrutiny than A-Rod’s Dominican cousin.
No one could fathom how an undermanned Rockets team could push the Lakers to an elimination game, but it’s not like the Lakers haven’t done this sort of thing already. The 2000 team blew a 3-1 series lead to Portland and had to rally from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter of Game 7 to make it to the Finals. In the 2001 Finals, they lost to the Pacers by 33 in a close-out game. In 2002, it took a lucky bounce and Robert Horry’s buzzer-beater to keep from going down 3-1 to Sacramento. All those Lakers teams won championships.
The difference with this team is that something still seems to be lacking at a fundamental level. Call it leadership, call it maturity. The three-peat Lakers of ‘00-02 had the kind of veteran leadership, with Horry, Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Ron Harper – that this team simply doesn’t. As brilliant as Kobe Bryant is as a player, his leadership has always been suspect. He’s as apt to whine at the refs, scowl at his teammates, and force up shots as he is to take over games and facilitate.
In the ugly Game 4 and Game 6 losses, Kobe did nothing to stem the tide. Not that it was all on him – his younger teammates, like they did in Boston last year, struggled to keep their poise and find their shots. Phil Jackson’s laid-back style of coaching, encouraging players to work through bad patches on their own, doesn’t necessarily work with this group.
Pregame
Some comforting thoughts for Lakers fans looking for historical precedents before the game:
Rick Adelman had never beaten the Lakers in a playoff series.
The Lakers were 12 for 13 of their last Game 7s.
In Lakers-Rockets playoff history, the winner of the series had gone to the NBA Finals a total of four times.
Discomforting thought:
The four teams that went to the Finals—the Rockets in ’81 and ’86; the Lakers in ’84 and ’91 – all lost.
Arriving at Staples, I check the press seating list, and am grateful for the cachet that SLAM carries at Staples. Sixty-two reporters are slotted in the upper press boxes, the ones closest to God. I am one of the fortunate ones slotted downstairs, closest to the Laker Girls and Jack. SLAM, praise be thy name.
If there’s any palpable tension in the locker room, it’s from the two dozen or so reporters milling about. The Lakers are masters of evasion on this day. At a certain point, there’s nothing more left to be said. Either you win or you don’t. Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, and Jordan Farmer pop their heads in, but don’t stick around to answer questions. They look loose.
On the Rockets side, I catch a quick comment from Ron Artest – “We have enough confidence that we don’t need to worry about luck” – before he, too, runs out.
Phil Jackson’s press conference begins with a reporter asking him if he’s nervous. “Sure I am,” he says. “Should be nervous on a day like this.”
Did he sleep well last night? “Yes.” Asked if he felt like he’s been on top of his game lately, he shrugs amicably and deadpans, “”I don’t know what else I could do. My shot is not falling. My three-point shot is limited. I’m worried.”
Clearly, he wasn’t. It’s what makes him so irritating at times. Nothing seems to faze Jackson or the Lakers. This time, they had the last laugh. Next time, maybe not so lucky.
I find one player in the Lakers locker room hanging at his locker, willing to talk. It’s Sasha Vujacic. Sasha, too, doesn’t seem worried. He claims that Phil has given the team inspirational words, but won’t divulge them. “We have to take care of the present and continue our journey.”
“We are mature enough as a team- if we play up to our level, we have nothing to worry about.”
Back on the Rockets side, it’s pin-drop quiet. Too quiet. Shane Battier is stretching, a couple of other guys sit at their lockers. For a team thriving on its underdog role and claiming to feel no pressure, they sure do seem quiet.
I find Luis Scola. I want to know how the Rockets can avoid a repeat of their Game 5 debacle.
“We just have to play hard, stick to the game plan, stay focused, and make it to the last quarter still in the game. If we can do that, the pressure will be on them. If we let them get 10, 15 points ahead, it’s going to be very difficult to come back.”
Truer words, as it turns out, were never spoken.
In-Game
The fans are amped. During the singing of the National Anthem, they boo the verse “rockets red glare.” There’s something the Nuggets don’t have to be concerned with.
The last thing Vujacic had said was, “There’s no need to talk. We know what we have to do.”
And then they go out and do it.
First Rockets possession, Aaron Brooks penetrates, dishes to Artest in the corner – and he airmails a three. Then Pau Gasol blocks Scola’s first shot, leading to a Kobe layup. Then another Rockets turnover. Ariza tips in a Gasol miss. Another Rockets turnover. Ariza nails a three.
It’s 8-0, and 2:28 into the game, a note scrawled in my pad says, “it’s over.”
When the Lakers decide to play defense – really play it, fighting through screen-and-rolls, funneling speedy guards into their big men, closing off passing lanes – they are an awesome team that few can beat.
Already, the Rockets have a look of doom. The pattern of this series- much like the Atlanta-Miami series – is that the team that wins the first quarter wins the game.
The Lakers don’t score on their next six possessions – and all the Rockets can manage are a couple of free throws.
The Rockets don’t make a field goal till 4:43 left in the first quarter, missing on their first 12 shots.
The Rockets are out of sorts and out of options. Everything that worked in Game 6 is shut down today. If Brooks drives by Fisher, he’s met by two collapsing Lakers. When Scola tries to spin past Gasol, Gasol is there waiting, for Scola into hook shots and one-handers outside his comfort zone. Artest already has more airballs than points. The Rockets miss on 20 of their first 25.
Not that the Lakers are lighting it up. If someone were to tell you before the game that the Lakers would shoot 9-23 in the first quarter, you’d think they’d be in a world of hurt.
Instead, they end the quarter with a 10-point lead
Two minutes into the second, a Chuck Hayes layup brings the Rockets within 9, 24-15.
That’s the closest they will get the rest of the game.
News Flash: Kobe Bryant is not coming up big in Game 7.
News Flash II: It doesn’t even matter. That’s how scary-good the Lakers are playing. And to be fair, Kobe’s rebounding and assisting, anchoring the defense, and shrugging off his misses. Except when he’s complaining to the refs.
News Flash III: The Lakers just remembered the height advantage they hold with Yao out. Gasol and Andrew Bynum are punishing the Rockets on the offensive end. At one point, Gasol has as many rebounds (11) as the Rockets front five.
Kobe checks back into the game at the 8:20 mark of the second. His first shot is an airball with Battier in his face. Kobe runs downcourt, jawing at the refs, yelling for a foul. Maybe Battier hit him, maybe he didn’t, but it’s the least appealing part of Kobe’s game.
On one textbook sequence, Brooks is funneled into the middle by Fisher. Bottled up, he tries a cross-court pass, which Jordan Farmar picks off, leading to a Kobe jumper, and a 33-17 lead.
Five minutes later, Kobe picks off another errant Brooks pass and feeds Ariza for an athletic drive, and a 47-26 lead.
The Rockets have yet to make a run and don’t seem capable. They seemed to have left everything on the floor in Houston—just like they did after Game 4.
By halftime, the Lakers have 11 second-chance points to the Rockets’ none, and lead in points-in-the-paint, 26-14. The offensive sparkplug is Ariza, but the Lakers are winning this in the trenches – with defense and rebounding.
The second half is more of the same. The loudest roar comes on an Ariza-to-Bynum oop that raises the lead to 63-39. The crowd chants “Houston Sucks!”, but that seems besides the point. It’s the Lakers who should be wondering how they let this gritty but clearly inferior, undersized team push them to the brink.
In the fourth quarter, with the celebration on, Todd Rundgren’s “Bang A Drum All Day” blares through Staples. The lyrics seem to be an apt metaphor for the Lakers:
“I don’t want to work.
I want to bang on a drum all day,
I don’t want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day.”
Sometimes they want to work, other times, they just want to bang the drum. Fortunately for Phil Jackson, ABC, the NBA, and several thousand disgruntled Lakers fans and bloggers, the team that showed up today was the team that wanted to work.
Postgame
The question of the day is posed to Odom: Why can’t you guys do this every night? “We like to keep things interesting,” Odom says, and it’s hard to tell if he’s kidding. “This is Hollywood.”
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I’m not mad at the Rockets loosing the game, I mean, I aint HAPPY about it either, but the Lakers just flat out played better throughout the game. Well done Lakers (and their fans I guess haha).
Whatever happens in these playoffs, I really do not look forward to the ranting and raving on blogs and comment sections about ‘Kobe lost he’s nothing without Shaq’ ‘Kobe won he’s the greatest ever’ ‘Lebron lost he does too much’ ‘Lebron won because of his point guard’ rubbish that will be inevitably spouted round the web. Hypotheticals and theories are so boring now. On that note, I hope the Nuggs win and JR gets finals MVP. Not that I care about Denver or anything, but it’d make a nice change. Although all the press would be about how Kobe and Bron didn’t win.
Clearly, they do.
I have no idea what the Lakers’ problem is. They have no ‘on’ switch. They just don’t play sometimes. They clearly have the make-up of a championship team, judging by this game. I don’t get why they can’t do this all the time. It makes no sense.
Lack of grounded leadership, probably.
Here’s the lead from the NY Times’ gamer this morning:
–
LOS ANGELES — After a journey through seven games of mood swings, turns in the story line and questions about just who these Lakers are, Kobe Bryant said he finally learned something about his team.
“That we’re bipolar,” Bryant said with an ear-to-ear grin.
–
Dude, I have been saying that sh*t for YEARS.
And they were 2-1 when that 7’6” guy playing, Eboy.
So could these issues result in the Lakers going home against the Nuggets? Yes. Will it? I’d be pretty surprised if it did. Lakers just have too much talent on their team to let their mental deficiencies let them get beat before the NBA finals.
Cavs in six though.
A team makes the Conf. Finals has to be taken at face value.
We can keep coming up with excuses, but DAMN it Hell we just defeated the Defending Champs IN THIER HOME BUILDING! the Least we can et is a ******** ******* Recap!
A team makes the Conf. Finals has to be taken at face value.
We can keep coming up with excuses, but DAMN it 2 Hell we just defeated the Defending Champs IN THIER HOME BUILDING! the Least we can et is a ******** ******* Recap!
White Hot BUZZ KILL
As some one who knows the game (and i know thats what you want from me to use my brain not my heart)I think we can take 3 before LBJ prove too much…But thats why we use our hearts to love this game
Plus, the Rockets immense success was constantly putting ALL-TEAM DEFENSE defenders on Kobe. Dahnty Jones is going to get obliterated, and man… JR Smith?
I want to know how Denver is going to manage their shooting guard spot. To defend Kobe, Dahnty Jones needs to be in there full time, keeping a hand in Kobe’s face, leading Kobe to Anderson and Nene… but JR is a massive impact scorer who needs to get his minutes to really go off. With JR in the game, however, Kobe’s going to drop 50. So it’ll be interesting to see how the minutes are balanced.
And I definitely DO see Billups killing DFish.
RV: Josh Smith is the only overtly athletic person on Atlanta. Scola’s flopping would send Smith to the BENCH immediately. Dude was downright enraged when Varejao was doing it. JJ would be downright locked by Artest/Battier, Aaron Brooks would score 100 on Bibby and I don’t think Horford has it in him to carry a team like that. So I don’t know. The game would go to seven but I’d put my money on the heavily injured Rockets. Not to say that the Lakers game seven wasn’t more telling than the Celtics (Pierce and Allen were going through a massive slump which they snapped out of game seven of the Cav series, while it seems like EVERY Laker is going through a slump), but I wouldn’t downplay the current Rockets team and forget how ill-constructed last year’s Hawks were.
Ciolkstar: See, this is where I have a problem with her logic. Kobe doesn’t have the point vision of Lebron or Wade (or even JJ Reddick), but the dude can PASS if he sees the open man. Once the bigs collapse on Kobe, the man has had a habit of passing around them to hit a running Gasol/Odom or a parked Bynum. This causes mismatches and problems on defense. Look what happened when the Spurs tried to close out on Kobe during last year’s series (although in fairness, Kobe’s jumper was downright wet in that series too).
The success that the Rockets had wasn’t clogging the lane with their big men, they didn’t HAVE big men. They had two defenders that played Kobe tight, but light enough to cut off his driving spots. Doubling Kobe has worked in the past because he’ll just try to shoot through the double, but I think the key will be how well Dahnty/Carmello/Billups/JR Smith guard Kobe out on the perimeter.
Expect a Phoenix bash in three… two…
would make the w/c finals , now im not sure who wants it more george karl or phil zenmaster j
the cavs will have to stop the onslaught of 3 point shooting of orlando,, is jj redic ready for his close up… i like the cavs in 7 and the lakers in 7
it = “Lakers flawed”
I’m only talking about the people who were there at the Staples Center. It was annoying and uncalled for… Just saying.
I also find it funny how people call the Lakers the deepest team in the NBA. Subtract Kobe Bryant and what do you get?
Thanks and good day.
And he flip flops like a bi-polar John Kerry. First, he gives you that all-mighty “Ha you’re dumb that opinion I gave was just to get a rise out of people I didn’t mean it” then when you call it on him, he’ll throw a “WHAT, I’m not ALLOWED to have that opinion?” as if it was real in the first place.
Dude would be a hit at an AOL chatroom.
He’ll say anything.
Lawyers don’t have souls…
On the flip side, my brother just graduated from law school…
Don’t let this get in the way of the mob though.
My brother recently learned to tie his shoelaces.We’re very proud.He’s 22.
I didn’t even watch the Lakers game, I knew the Rockets were going to get blown out.
I was sewing a quilt.
@ Eboy: Is it good to be 13 on this site? Hah.
dude is a wnba wanna be who cant find a date…
(male)
are on vaction ,like the mavs, celtics, the rockets. and george bush(#2)slam online sucks because of his post(stupid rants )
nuff said
Moose- your last comment- that is the only comment showing your age. Other than that, and your strange ‘chimes’ with the ‘^^^’ symbols, you could be considered… similiar intelligence level to most everyone else here.
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