by Craig Kwasniewski
Two of the hottest teams in The Association collided at Staples Center with Houston beating Los Angeles 76-74, here are a few notes from my view high up in the rafters:
-Houston basically won the game in the third quarter with physical play and timely outside shooting from rookie Luther Head. The Rockets defense disrupted the triangle offense and kept the Lakers offense on the perimeter. The physical, man-to-man defense intimidated the Lakers as several possessions ended with last second shots to beat the shot clock.
-T-Mac won the game by splitting the Lakers defense on a drive to the hoop, finishing with a left-handed lay-up. I know Devean George did a decent job defending T-Mac most of the game, but where was Kobe on that last possession? By putting Kobe on T-Mac, the refs would not have called any foul and Kobe could have forced T-Mac to shoot a fade-away jumper. Instead, George covered T-Mac closely, but still allowed the drive because it looked like he didn't want to draw a foul.
-I am loving the Ryan Bowen era. Not only does the guy have a website, he also starts for a playoff contending NBA team and evidently has quite an acting career. Though I was surprised that Van Baldy started the game with Bowen defending Kobe. He did a decent job a keeping Kobe from driving to the hoop. The Lakers spent most of the game going small so Van Gundy kept Bowen on the bench. Tonight, 6 points and 3 rebounds.
-Celebrity sighting of the night: A clear tie between Mischa Barton (sitting in Jack Nicholson's court-side seat) and Pamela Anderson. Normally I'd say that Pamela is so September 10th, but she still carries quite an aura. They showed her and Tommy Lee kissing on the scoreboard and Stapes Center erupted. Mischa Barton, looks very hot in person... at least from 1500 feet away.
-Lastly, when Modo Ramal turns back into Lamar Odom and it looks very much like he hit the bong (3 points, 7 rebounds), the Laker training staff should always give him sugary water. Believe me... sugar mixed in water will do the trick and bring you back. Let's just say that an expert in Amsterdam introduced me to it, and it works. Just leave it at that. 420
This is really an inexcusable loss for the Lakers. In a low scoring game, they had an 11 point halftime lead, only let let HOU score 34 of their 76 points in the 3rd quarter. By contrast, the Lakers only scored 32 the entire second half! Someone needs to tell this team they're not good enough to mail in the second half of a game.
Posted by: Brett | December 19, 2005 at 07:21 PM