Time for what’s clearly the stiffest test of the season for the Lakers as a team with at least three All Stars comes to town. The Houston Rockets, who boasted Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady last season, added Ron Artest to the mix and are to me the closest team in the league to L.A. in terms of all-around talent.
Here are your lineups:
Lakers Starters: Fish, Bryant, Vladi, Gasol and Bynum
Houston Rockets: Rafter Alston, Tracy McGrady, Ron Artest, Luis Scola and Yao Ming
First Quarter
Let’s get right into it … A gorgeous alley-oop in transition from Vladi to Gasol gave the home team an early 6-2 lead, before Kobe crept into the lane for a huge block on Yao that made Ty immediately remember this massive swat on Yao from last year.
Generally a play like that gives some momentum to the team that executed the play, but not so on this occasion. Instead, the Rockets responded with a 12-0 run to go up 16-7 and force a Phil Jackson timeout with 5:27 remaining in the quarter. The final two hoops were uncontested threes from Skip To My Lou (Alston - come on, you know about the original and-1 all star) and T-Mac. Two minutes later, Fisher stopped the bleeding temporarily with a 17-foot jumper, but Gasol’s third turnover of the quarter led to two Scola free throws and an 11-point Rockets lead. That led Jackson to enter Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmer and Trevor Ariza into the game a bit earlier than normal. In unrelated news, the pregame meal included both chicken quesadillas and waffles with whipped cream and maple syrup. Odd mix on paper, you think? Yeah, whatever, just try it.
The Lakers smartly started attacking the glass while facing their biggest deficit of the season (I think), drawing second fouls on both Artest and Yao in the process, but continued to shoot terribly from the field throughout the quarter, making just 4-of-16 shots before Bryant hit a J before the buzzer to make it a 28-16 game. That 16 points is a low for a quarter this season, as is the 29.4 percent shooting. While the shooting was bad (including 0-of-4 from Bynum close to the hoop), L.A. also turned the ball over eight times, which was a big reason why Houston was able to score 28 points. All-in-all, a poopy quarter from the Lakers … But we shouldn’t be too surprised, since the Lakers haven’t played since Wednesday. That’s way too long of a stretch without competition for an NBA team, and it’s showing.
Second Quarter
L.A. made it a 10-point game near the 10-minute mark on what I thought was a great decision by Farmar, who after getting the ball back from Ariza on the fastbreak kept it himself and simply jumped over the 6-0 Aaron Brooks to cap a 6-0 run. Speaking of Brooks … He killed the Lakers in his first six minutes on the court, making 5-of-6 shots including two threes, and finishing twice in traffic at the rim for 13 points. You could fit two of him in Bynum’s body, by the way.
Two uncontested jumpers from Carl Landry continued to make us regret the long layoff from games, but more importantly, Sasha Vujacic began to make good on our understanding that he was going to have a good shooting game by canning a three in transition. I’ve explained that his going 7-for-22 in the first four games was mostly my fault, so that stroke from the corner brought me a moment’s reprise from L.A.’s poor start.
Until the second unit got going, that is…
It was Farmar, Ariza and Odom, predictably, that cut Houston’s 13-point lead quickly down to seven, forcing a Rick Adelman timeout at the 5:32 mark. The signature play in L.A.’s run came as Farmar picked Brooks’s pocket before sprinting ahead in the open floor and finishing with a one-handed dunk. Jackson’s going to leave Farmar, Ariza and Bynum out there, but come back with Gasol and Bryant to see if L.A. can’t come all the way back from the early deficit.
Ty noted that at the 4:45 mark, the Lakers had already scored 24 points this quarter, which looks especially nice next to that 16-point stink bomb from the first quarter. By the way, my dad texted me that he didn’t like my use of “poopy” in describing the first quarter, but I stand by the word. I can’t think of a better way to describe the period, but will again excuse it because of the long layoff. Alas, Ariza started stealing the ball repeatedly (twice in less than a minute) to bring L.A. within one at the 2:30 mark after Gasol tipped in Ariza’s miss, and the Lakers were officially playing like the Lakers.
A particularly fun few minutes of basketball to watch came to a halt when Bynum tried to dunk on Yao from … what do you think Ty … the circle, basically … and drew a foul, leading to a timeout and a chance for the crowd to catch its breath. After his two foul shots swished through and Odom cleared a rebound, Gasol scored first in transition and then from the foul line to put L.A. up 50-47 in the final minute. Artest hit 1-of-2 free throws before Bryant was stripped at the top of the circle with seven seconds remaining, but Odom sprinted back in transition to smash Artest’s layup attempt off the glass and allow the Lakers to leave the court with a two-point lead.
In summation, the Lakers went from being down 12 to up two, scored 34 points in the quarter and generally found the mojo that carried them through the season’s first four games.
Gasol finished the half with 12 points and eight boards, Bryant and Bynum scored nine each, and Farmar kicked in eight off the bench.
Third Quarter
At some point in the second quarter … I can’t pin down when it happened exactly … the Rockets went cold from the field, as if one of the Lakers subs stuck his shoe on top of Houston’s rim. As such, Houston managed just six points in the first 5:30 of the third after scoring just three points in the final seven minutes of the second.
That was why it must have really hurt those wearing red when Bryant sprung off the baseline for his second huge block of the game, this time on T-Mac (who was then 1-of-9 from the field). Bryant capped off the sequence with a terribly difficult fade-away bank shot off a spin move. Though their offense wasn’t generating much, Artest bailed Houston out with two contested threes to keep it close halfway through the period at 61-57 Lakers. That’s when a quick defense-inspired 6-0 run took place, including four points from Fisher, to put the Lakers up 10.
Note on T-Mac: He looks anything but healthy out there. Ty thinks he’s at about 50 percent, and I wouldn’t go much higher. It’s not that he’s making terrible mistakes, but he clearly doesn’t have the athletic explosion that saw him win dunk titles and slither through the lane at will. Rockets.com reporter Jason Friedman told me in our interview for the Gameday page that T-Mac wasn’t healthy, and he certainly wasn’t lying. So, instead of being able to work a two-man game with McGrady and Yao, we saw Artest take three triples in the third quarter’s first few minutes. It’s really too bad.
I mentioned to Ty that I like how Farmar’s able to creep along the baseline in the halfcourt, probing for options before generally making a good decision. Ty likened this ability to what we see at times from a Chris Paul or Steve Nash, when defenders are too scared of the point guards’ collective ability to punish them to do anything but stand and watch. Good take, says me.
Carl Landry managed a putback of a Brooks miss to make the score 72-65 at the quarter’s close, bringing two points back after Odom had swished a three to put the Lakers up nine. Another strong quarter from the Lakers, making tonight’s slow start a distance memory. One other note from the third … After stopping in the media room for a water and a Mountain Dew, I tripped on some carpet right behind Denzel Washington’s seat. Had I actually fallen and dumped my drink on Denzel’s head or lap, do you think he would have shot a glance from “American Gangster”? Or would he have gotten extra fierce with a “Training Day” stare? Neither option seems like it would have ended well for me.
Fourth Quarter
Don’t look now, but Vujacic is 2-for-2 from three after canning another to make it 77-66 early in the period. He then faked a shot to get his defender up in the air, and fed Gasol for a wide-open jumper that gave the Lakers a 13-point lead, which increased even more when Odom lofted a pretty baseline fadeaway. That’s 81-66, Lake Show. Anyways, I can’t take complete credit for taking the pressure off Vujacic with that Friday article. Not complete credit.
Moments later, after a Farmar three and another Gasol hoop make it 86-69, the crowd erupted with a truly appreciative ovation as Adelman called his troops over for a timeout. Houston looks demoralized, and boy do the Lakers seem to be scoring and shutting down the defensive lane with ease…
As Sasha stepped up to shoot a technical free throw, Ty wondered aloud who decides which player is going to shoot. Vujacic was probably the best shooter on the court (Ariza, Farmar, Bynum and Odom), but it could have gone to someone else. Yet in this case, as soon as the Lakers learned of the T, only Vujacic took a step forward. I mean, we know Kobe’s taking it if he’s on the floor, and I bet Fish is high on the list, but is Vujacic next? Hmm. More importantly, Sasha tossed another nice dime for a Farmar three, and a few minutes later his his third shot in three attempts to stay perfect. At that point, I reconsidered my earlier statement and became ready to take complete and full credit for his performance.
Kobe checked back in for Vujacic (promptly nailing a three to make it 97-75, all of a sudden), and Bynum came in for Pau, who left with this stat line: 20 points on 7-of-10 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line, plus 15 rebounds, three blocks and three assists.
The highlight of the quarter and game came on a picture-perfect look-away alley-oop pass from Farmar that Bynum grabbed and dunked on Yao. A close second was a Bryant oop from Ariza’s alley in transition. But if you’re looking for some telling numbers, check out these plus/minus numbers with 4:38 left in the game:
Farmar: +22
Odom: +21
Vujacic: +17
Ariza: +29
Clearly, the fourth quarter wasn’t so much of a contest as a “look how good we are” from the Lakers, who at no point seemed content with their growing lead, as witnessed by Ariza’s corner three that made it 107-80 at the 2:28 mark.
So, the final two minutes are academic at this point … But we’ll be back with postgame video and analysis right here on Lakers.com. I think it’s safe to say that L.A. is 5-0.
