DO YOU THINK WE CAN GO ALL THE WAY?With Yao Ming out, the Houston Rockets had no chance to beat the Los Angeles Lakers . Right?
Wrong.
Aaron Brooks scored a career-high 34, Shane Battier sank five 3-pointers and added 23 and the Rockets beat the Lakers 99-87 on Sunday to even their Western Conference semifinal at two games apiece.
''I think everyone but us got the memo that we weren't supposed to show up today without Yao,'' Battier said.
Luis Scola had 11 points and 14 rebounds as the Rockets got exactly the team effort they needed after Yao broke his left foot in the Lakers' win in Game 3.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Los Angeles, and anyone who thought the Rockets were finished without their best player only needed to watch the first quarter on Sunday, when Houston built a 29-16 lead.
The Rockets never trailed and led by as many as 29 before the Lakers made the score respectable toward the end.
I guess that's why they play the game. The Lakers didn't show up and the Rockets played their hearts out. Battier set the tone early burying those treys. Phil Jackson's "no timeout no matter how much we're down by early" strategy backfired. The game got awy from them for good.
ReplyDeleteI still feel it's Lakers/Denver vs the Cavs in the final but it just got a bit more interesting.
Ryan
I think the NBA playoffs are rigged to generate as much $$ as possible,
ReplyDeletebut that's just me...