Feel better now? Holy Cow. The Blazers had a much better season than we realized!! This Houston team is very good, and we have nothing to be ashamed of.
Yesterday, my fiancee and I weren't sure who to root against... we didn't hate the Rockets before the playoffs, but we both agreed we hate them now. And the Lakers... well, they're the Lakers! We've hated them for YEARS! We decided yesterday that we wanted all the games to go into quadruple overtime, and arrange themselves to force a seven game series. However... after watching this game... I was rooting against the Lakers much, much more. It just proves to me that my second favorite team indeed is "Whoever Is Playing The Lakers Tonight". Go Rockets. Like you say, the better they do after beating us, the better we look.
I'd love to see the Rockets sweep the Lakers or beat them 4-1. That would make our performance against Houston look even better.
Yep. Tonight's loss by LAL helped with the healing process of losing the series against HOU. It makes me think we didn't lose because of a lack of poise or being a young team.
It didn't look to me like the Lakers watched any tape from the Portland series. They didn't try to front Yao and they paid the price. They tried to guard Artest with a quick small forward and paid the price. Scola had multiple open looks from exactly the same spot he killed Portland from. He didn't make them pay, but he will if that continues. The Lakers looked like shit. They are going to have to bring it a lot harder in game 2. BTW, Bynum sure did play Yao to a standstill. And by that I mean that Yao took his lunch money, bought candy with it, then ate that candy in front of him.
Well, our lack of playoff experience didn't help any, but Houston is clearly a VERY good team. My admiration continues to grow for Rick Adelman, who is probably the most underrated coach in the NBA.
qft. Pretty much hit on every point I was thinking. Except that Aaron Brooks must be soiling himself over his luck. First he gets to go against Blake, and then Fisher. Probably the two point guards in the playoffs least capable of guarding a speedster. Well, there's always hope that the Rockets beat LA and he gets Kidd in the WCF. But Barea seems to guard PG's a lot, so that may not be the advantage it has been. Bynum and Gasol are such crappy defenders. After watching Przybilla and Oden bust their asses against Yao, I was actually pretty frustrated with the Lakers. They didn't even really try to stop him. They sort of just fumbled around and waited for Houston to forget about him. (Which of course they did too often.) BTW--Roy just looks better and better to me after watching Kobe jack up a ridiculous number of shots to get his points. Roy looked so effortless against this team that I was beginning to wonder if the defense of Artest and Battier was overrated. Sure didn't look that way tonight.
lol the refs just fucking LOVE Houston, I swear to god. 29-19 free throw advantage, 26-14 fouls called (almost DOUBLED), and this is IN LA. That is just ridiculous (and yes, I realize a lot of those were intentional fouls at the end of the game...it still favors Houston by a bunch). Of course it wasn't the only reason why LA lost, but it certainly contributed. If this keeps up, you might as well stick a fork in LA. There hasn't been ONE game in the playoffs this year where they didn't get the whistles.
Ya, our inexperience did hurt us in game one if nothing else. It's to bad we met the Rockets in the first round because I think another team we would have done better against and made it out of the round and when we face the Rockets we wouldn't have played so bad in the opening game. I do agree that the better the Rockets do the better we look.
And game four. I still think that that's a game Portland should have won, but they threw it away in the fourth quarter with uncharacteristic turnovers and inability to get their own defensive rebounds.
I thought Artest might have just been trying to get into Kobe's head saying Roy is harder to defend, but he might have just been stating the truth.
Rockets winning only proves the Blazers. Plus, I believe they could have fared well against the Lakers.
I like your take on it, lol. Brooks does have it easy. This is uncalled for. Did you watch the game? Houston was aggressive and earned every foul.
Maybe. I think Brandon may have a quicker single step, and has a much shiftier change of pace. Artest can see what Kobe wants to do and put a body on him for a step or two to disrupt him. When he tried that against Roy, he'd body him for one step and Roy would just do a quick step-back jumper, or a jerking switch to his other hand. It'd throw Artest off and free him up for a drive, jumper or an open pass. Artest just couldn't stay in physical contact with Roy long enough to control him. I think I'm going to continue watching this series, even though I said I wouldn't. It's just so interesting in watching the contrasting styles of Kobe/Roy and how both teams handle Yao. I have so much more respect for Yao than I ever did before these playoffs. I swear--I feel like if both of his feet are under his shoulders, he'll make the shot every time. He only seems to miss when he's off-balance.
