Houston Rockets 101, LA Lakers 91

•Pretty funny moment at around the 9 minute mark of the first when Trevor Ariza’s shoe came off and Ron Artest nonchalantly tossed it into the stands. The icing was Ariza’s reaction of sheer incredulity, as if to say “Seriously?”

•The aforementioned sequence isn’t demonstrative of any malfeasance on Ron’s part, but it’s a convenient segway: I find this entirely contrived vendetta Artest has been perpetuating against Ariza to be pretty odd. The best part is that I’m pretty sure the former actually thinks he would still be a Rocket were it not for Ariza. It’s like “Dude, she dumped you. It wasn’t because of Trevor. She just dumped you. Move on.”

•Chase Budinger had two monster tomahawk slams in the 1st which pretty much reinforced my belief that he’s one of the most confusing players I have seen in some time. Despite the jaw-dropping vertical, he can’t be considered ‘athletic’ because he is actually pretty slow. There’s no other word but ‘odd’ that can describe watching Chase drive in at half speed and then suddenly explode to the rim and attempt to tear it down. That’s shock value right there. The worst part about Chase is that I can’t think of a guy to whom I can compare his game. (Yes, not just white guys.) That’s really what makes this so difficult. Because honestly, when assessing a player, you can always bank on praise for some sort of insight or a couple of cheap laughs when offering a comparison to a former player.

•David Andersen’s game really reminds me of Mo Taylor pre-Krispy Kreme discovery.

•This game demonstrated why I have been backing David Andersen so hard this season. I just love this guy’s skillset. Like Taylor, he’s just smooth. He has a beautiful stroke from the outside and a very solid repertoire in the post. Also like Taylor, he’s pretty much not even there defensively. I think that will come though. Look, he will never be a guy who can guard Amare Stoudemire. The goal is to get his defense to a level where it doesn’t negate his offensive contributions. Give him time. The offense is already there.

•Another interesting point came when Chase Budinger was seen guarding Kobe for a few series’ after the 8 minute mark of the 2nd. That’s some serious confidence Rick Adelman is showing in this guy. And I do think this possibly has Tracy implications.

•What does this win mean? I was going to include my thoughts as a bullet here, but I decided this is a topic worthy of a separate post. More on this later.

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