httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7neEzEvVc0
Analysis and the daily links can be found after the jump.
Even as he plays directly into the defense’s hands, rising up from several feet behind the almost 24 foot hash mark to throw up a bomb that seems predestined to hit the back of the iron, Kobe Bryant still strikes fear in all opposing fans’ hearts at the ends of games. Bryant lifts off, Battier rises to meet him and extend his arm, and all at home recoil as they prepare for the worst. Wednesday night, the shots that should clank did clank, and the team that played with the most consistent effort did pull it out. The Rockets looked like a team searching for redemption as the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers came into Toyota Center, and they were lucky to find a Lakers team too wrapped up in its own vendettas to notice exactly how well the Rockets were playing this night. Almost everything went right, and the Houston Rockets defeated the world champions and left the court feeling good, and deservedly so, for what is probably one of the first times this year.
After a first quarter that ended quite sourly with a Laker run to recapture the lead (with an added Matt Barnes swipe at Chase Budinger’s head for good measure), the Rockets looked to their reserves to help fend off the newly formidable Laker bench (it turns out that a bench is usually better when its best player is not Sasha Vujacic), and Ish Smith responded by pulling out every single trick stashed in his coffers. He ran circles around every other player, Lakers and Rockets alike, before delivering some of the best passes I’ve seen from anyone in a Rocket uniform since Tracy McGrady; his shooting touch, which was somehow miraculously present on this night (2-2 on a couple of the same runners he routinely makes look like the worst shot in the NBA), may be completely lacking, but the vision of Smith cannot be underestimated, as his activity single-handedly invigorated Houston for a second period in which all of his fellow bench members, outside of the walking speedball that is Jordan Hill, fell flat in their collective performance. In fact, point guard play was a distinct advantage of the Rockets in this match, as Kyle Lowry penetrated and kicked out his way into 10 dimes, a number that impressed me almost as much as the fact Lowry only put up four shots (and made a couple of them). He and Smith recognized the importance and intensity of last night’s game and shot remarkably conservatively while constantly pushing the ball and producing more open shots for teammates than I saw Houston take all year (some of this can also be attributed to LA’s often condescending help defense that simply doesn’t think your less potent three-point shooters will knock down open looks). And on the receiving end of most of many of those assists was Wednesday’s savior, the wily veteran that may be the only NBA player able to outsmart Kobe Bryant, Shane Battier. His was a performance of pure inspiration, knocking down big shot after big shot in the fourth period (pouring in an enormous 11 points in the period) and more importantly not allowing Bryant any level of comfort, any proper look at the basket. Throughout most of the game, thanks to some awful matchups (imagine Kevin Martin trying to stop a Ron Artest post move and not shattering into a hundred little pieces), Martin was checking Bryant, something Bryant noticed and attacked over and over; Adelman made sure to adjust in the final minutes when the chance that any plays going to Ron Ron would be unlikely, and he placed the man who was born to defend Kobe right in front of the Mamba, letting the two go to work on their island of pump fakes and push-offs. Bryant kept missing and slipped while defending Shane, allowing him to claim his own moment of Bryant-like greatness and walk away with not just the W but a reminder that he is not too old to check the baddest man on the planet at the ends of games.
Kobe Bryant should not have taken so many shots. Pau Gasol should have been a much bigger presence. Lamar Odom should have been allowed to go to work on Scola (who fought valiantly but poorly against Odom, whose legs never seem to age) more often. Many things should have happened differently last night, but they didn’t. The Houston Rockets have been building for years to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers, and though the team has much bigger problems than that these days (like, say, beating the Charlotte Bobcats and Toronto Raptors), it was nice for that goal to be accomplished, if just for one glorious night.
Houston Rockets 109, Los Angeles Lakers 99
On to the links…
- Jonathan Feigen of the Chronicle knows exactly how rare the Battier-over-Kobe result of last night was, and he made sure to talk to the Dukie about it after the game. Battier and Feigen both seem impressed with the team’s composure and willpower over the game’s closing moments, the ones that have traditionally marked the beginning of the end for the Rockets this year: “The Rockets got that late burst after the sort of possession that so far this season had been crippling them. When Bryant hit his 19-footer on the Lakers’ third shot, he gave L.A. a 97-94 lead with 3:10 left. ‘I think that was the turning point,’ Battier said. ‘Kobe hit a tough shot, but I was proud of the way we reacted. Instead of just saying, ‘Oh, this is Kobe and the Lakers; this is that time for them to take over,’ we fought back. That’s what you have to do. If you go down, go down firing.’” Say whatever you want about this year’s Houston Rockets (and I have, repeatedly), but hearing a team’s captain talk about “go(ing) down firing” warms the heart.
- Where the Rockets found inspiration and strength in this outcome, the champs started to rip at the seams just a little more. Though Kobe and Phil will always play up the insouciance (because they must not care if nothing else), both sounded obviously rattled after the Rockets extended the Lakers’ losing streak to four: “‘How do you know how good we think we are? We’re fine,’ an obviously annoyed Bryant said. ‘Are we going to win a three-peat today? Probably not, but the [expletive] is not played today.’ Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson denied being concerned about his team. ‘Concern? It’s way too early in the season, and we’ve got a long ways to go,’ he said. ‘We’ve got some guys struggling and need to get better.’”
- This offseason, the Orlando Magic was routinely chided for not bulking up its roster in a manner similar to its East Coast rivals in Miami and Boston, and the only “major deal” floating around them involved taking on the ludicrous contract of Gilbert Arenas from a Washington team that wanted Gil and young star/messiah John Wall as far apart as possible. Well, it turns out that little piece of nonsense has some legs and may get even sillier, involving Vince Carter, Andray Blatche, Rashard Lewis and everyone else on your fantasy team as well. The Magic have shown similar flaws to past years at the beginning of this season (which still has been a rousing success at 14-4), making a perimeter scorer not afraid to take important shots endlessly appealing, but adding Arenas and, more importantly, his contract will decimate the future of a team already far too invested in the futures of Rashard Lewis and J.J. Redick (both fine players, but both overpaid. Eh, calling Lewis overpaid is like saying Steve Nash shoots free throws pretty well) without immediately adding anything that guarantees to put them over the top. While an Arenas-Nelson backcourt seems formidable, I don’t see the immediate distinction between it and Ginobili-Parker or James-Wade. This all seems too bizarre and mostly likely an experiment in seeing if a team can implode due to a goofiness overload.
- Yes, LeBron always had too much to do in Cleveland. But entering tonight’s deathmatch back in Ohio, let us not write revisionist history and say that he was not on championship contending teams, as the brilliant M. Haubs over at The Painted Area points out: “Further, I would argue that a reason Cleveland may not have been even better was that LeBron never committed to the Cavs for the long term, and the front office may have felt the pressure to make short-term moves to win immediately and appease LeBron. Listen, I don’t begrudge LeBron’s right to make The Decision one bit. I truly believe that pretty much any franchise he would have joined would have been on the brink of championship contention just by adding him. But to suggest that he had to leave Cleveland because he couldn’t win a championship there is complete, outright fiction. Cleveland conceivably could have won in 2009 if the bounces had gone their way, they could have won in 2010 if LeBron had played — and led — better, and they conceivably could have built a longer-term dynasty if LeBron had made a longer-term commitment there.”
- True Hoop has a house band as of today. Houston basketball nerds, I think you know what we need from you.