Rockets Roll

H

Horn69

2,500+ Posts
Who said the Lakers couldn't be beaten? Rockets played consistent game. Kobe was lethargic, Rockets were full of energy. Lakers led for only 47 seconds. Good for Houston.

Hook'em!!!
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As someone who hasn't seen the second round in 12 years and has seen a lot of terrible basketball in that time, this is such a refreshing change. Guys playing as a TEAM, CLUTCH play from STARS, and just overall good basketball.
 
I've found it hard to be a fan of pro sports teams, but I really like these Rockets. They are greater than the sum of their pieces. They play hard, they move the ball around and play unselfishly on offense. They rebound well, pass well, defend well.

They're fun to watch.
 
One of the most fundamentally sound teams I have seen in a while. Huge Game 2 on Wednesday night. If the Rockets can manage to steal another one in LA they would be in the driver's seat to win the series.
 
Only got to see the the 1st quarter and a half due to late start. Pretty sloppy play on both sides and I hope to see better basketball as this series continues. Very much reminded me of the Nuggets/Dallas game in that regard. Lakers were very rusty early and it showed. Bynum looked slow. Outside shots weren't falling. Houston played solidly as others mentioned but I would expect LA to bring more energy next game.
 
Brooks was great, which with Yao, Scola, Battier, and Artest, gives them five great working parts.
 
I would say they "rolled" It was close enough the Rockets had to play their starters most of the way through.

And I wouldn't say Kobe was cold. He scored 32 points.

But yea, good game for the Rockets.
 
GHoward, not to be harsh but look at the freaking box score.

Kobe took 31 shots to get 32 points. He shot under 50%. At least 3 of those buckets came at the end of the game when the Rockets were basically giving free passes to the rim.
 
Personally, I didn't think the Rockets played all that well.

Yao did. Artest did.

But the bench didn't look that good.
One thing I liked seeing was that Yao looked tough.

I expect the Lakers to play better Wednesday, but I also expect the Rockets to play better as well.
If we could take Wednesday, hmmmmm.
 
Heck yeah!!!!

This is a really fun Rockets team to watch. I love the guard play. They may be small and inexperienced, but I love their speed and tenacity. Scola is very underrated. Yao used to be soft... but he has gotten more aggressive under the basket and I love it. Artest was nails last night. And having said all of that... Battier is probably my favorite player on the team. He is smart and plays tough defense.

I don't think the Rockets will win the series... but this win gives me some hope. Kobe wasn't his usual self last night. You can partially credit Artest and Battier.... but I think you'll see Kobe put on a show in game 2. I think our bigs (Yao and Scola) are better than their bigs (Gasol, Bynum, and Odem). It may come down to our young guards ability to pace the game and make easy shots. How many times did they take it all the way to the basket for easy layups?

This is going to be a fun series to watch.
 
Lakers aren't going to shoot 11% from beyond the arc for the whole series. Or take as many dumb fouls inside as they did last night.

I'd be surprised if Yao got double-digit free throws for the remainder of the series, once the refs change what they call to help the Lakers.

Derek Fisher has been absolutely useless for the last couple months. The Lakers are playing ok in spite of him. Ariza was also uncharacteristically off last night. Gasol with his usual Jekyll/Hyde act... some nights he makes every shot, others he makes poor decisions.

As for Kobe, that's about what he usually shoots, percentage wise. If he had made one more of his shots, he's at his season FG% average. The difference was that he was off from long range, trying to get the Lakers back in the game. FG% isn't as good a success indicator as points/possession is in the NBA, and the Rockets were better at that last night.
 
I said the beginning of the series L.A. in 6 (and I'm a rockets fan), and I still think it's going to end in 6. Only way Houston wins this series is if:

1. yao can stay out of foul trouble
2. Ron Ron keeps up the shooting
3. Aaron Brooks needs to abuse every L.A. gaurd. No one on that team can stay in front of him.
4. Bench needs to play better than game 1. Yao should not and probably will not play 40+ minutes in game 2.
5. Limit the other players on L.A. other than Kobe. Gasol and Odom were non-existant and Bynum was pretty much on the bench with foul trouble.


I think if these 5 hings can happen, we can win the series. I don't expect us to win game 2, but we need to take care of business at home!
 
The Lakers thugish plan to take out Shane Battier = fail. Knee to the head? Elbow to the eye socket? Blood all over the place. Stiches. But you can't stop him. You can only hope to contain him.


My prediction for Game 2:

Kobe, who went to the line only 5 times in Game 1, will get 30 free throw attempts in Game 2.

They are starting to sweat in Olympic Tower.


My hope for Game 3:

That they bring back the Jack Nicholson lookalike contest. They did this several years ago and all those sunglasses in the stands looked pretty funny.
 
Thank you for that.
Keep it classy Kobe. Btw, was a foul called on that?

I think it was... Battier just walked away.
 
Aaron Brooks was big in the fourth and I love when Adelman went with the quick back court featuring Brooks and Lowry for a stretch of the fourth. It was one of the few times over the last 18+ years where Phil Jackson needed to call a timeout out because he was at a matchup disadvantage.

That said, we need better offense from Scola, Landry and Wafer and consistency out of Brooks and Artest.

If Shane can hit a couple of threes next time out, that would be a bonus.
 
The Lakers won't keep shooting that poorly especially from beyond the 3 but the Rockets exposed some big weaknesses in the Lakers.

1. The Lakers had no answer to defensively stop Brooks. And not just scoring. He drove the lane and dished the ball whenever he wanted.
2. Kobe has to figure out a way to shake Battier and Artest to up his shooting percentage.
3. Odom and Vujacic were useless especially on offense.

The Rockets still have an uphill battle because they rely heavily on Yao and Artest for scoring. Brooks or fill-in-the-blank will need to step up big in scoring for a few games. And Kobe can be an unstoppable force at times.
 
kobe is such a whiny ***** for being such a great player. i saw that live. dirty. you're exactly right, he'll get at least 20 FT attempts next game.
 
One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is this...

Lakers really didn't step up to a championship level against Utah, and they didn't last night either. Sure they beat Utah in five games, but they didn't expend a whole lot of energy doing it, and they really didn't play all that well. Utah was terrible at the end of the year. Lakers would get up big and they'd let Utah back in the game. They should have swept Utah but choked a game.

I have yet to see whether they can step to a championship level, and from the looks of things they're going to have to do that to advance past this round.
 
The Lakes just shot poorly. They outpaced the Rockets in most stat cats until the end, but they shot horribly and had some no shows (Odom, who, at 1-7 from the line could have changed the complexion of the game with three more FTs). Lakes were also rusty.

Houston is a fun team and they have the size inside and defensive athleticism outside to make this a tough series for the Lakes.

The Lakes have much more talent, but they are not really a tough team. There is no one on the team that is hard save Kobe, who may whine and stand off cool but is always a threat to knock down the winner or make a stop.

Fisher has been worthless for several years. He is cagey and can hit a J late in the game now and again, but he can't stay in front of anyone.

Lakes in 6 is about right. I really don't see the Rockets winning this unless Kobe gets injured.
 
A great story line in last night's game is Yao Ming's resilience. Yao is often considered one of the softest people in the league, whatever that term means.

However, last night, Yao was a warrior. After Kobe's knee rammed into Yao's, Rocket's trainers tried to take Yao back into the locker room. Yao would have none of it. He told Keith Jones he wanted to get back out there and the moment in the tunnel almost played out like a movie.

When Yao came back out, he definitely carried the Rockets through to the win. I believed he scored 6 or 8 points in the remaining 3 minutes or so.

Video

Probably not a big deal for the majority of posters here. However, for Rocket's fans, it was a great night of basketball.
 
Kobe doesn't have to shoot lights out. But he does need to drive to the basket more often. He needs to attack and dish when available.

I think a fast paced game also favors the Lakers. The Rockets will have a hard time out scoring the Lakers in such a game as well as keeping up with them running up and down the court over the course of the game.
 
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