Lakers-Rockets Second Round

[BB73]

Which team advances to the Western Conference Finals?

[OHSportsFan9]

Battier gets bloodied up pretty badly.

Hasn't that happened before?

[CHU]

I don't know why, but I keep thinking about Big Ten teams as the Lakers are coming out kind of flat in this Game 1 following the layoff.

And the Cavs have been off for more days.

[Romanowski]

I want to rain down fists on that grease ball Vujucic's face.

He reminds me of a soccer player at an art gallery deciding what year Pinot Noir he's going to uncork when he get's back to his loft.

I don't think I'm completely off base here...

[purplehaze1213]

Originally Posted by Romanowski

I want to rain down fists on that grease ball Vujucic's face.

He reminds me of a soccer player at an art gallery deciding what year Pinot Noir he's going to uncork when he get's back to his loft.

I don't think I'm completely off base here...

I agree completely. The dude is about as annoying as any player in the entire league, and he plays for the Lakers, which makes it even worse.

[methomps]

damn, Yao down

[purplehaze1213]

Originally Posted by methomps

damn, Yao down

He's back. Hopefully just a bruise.

[OHSportsFan9]

Houston's pretty good.

[purplehaze1213]

I hate the Lakers, but they got screwed by the refs on a few calls at the end of this game.

[OHSportsFan9]

Originally Posted by purplehaze1213

I hate the Lakers, but they got screwed by the refs on a few calls at the end of this game.

Kobe's out of bounds.

and D. Fish's "foul" come to mind.

Just my opinion.

[OCBucksFan]

Meh, the Lakers played a horrible first half, and thought they could just "turn it on" and it bit them in the ass.

[jlb1705]

Game 2 is a good one.

This has to be frustrating for the Lakers. At the end of the first quarter you could already see the stories being written for ESPN and tomorrows sports pages... 39 points for the Lakers, 15 by Kobe and nearly perfect shooting all around. The led by as much as fifteen - the rust was goneand the were cruising.

One problem - the Rockets won't go away, and with Yao on the bench with foul trouble they were relentless like T-2000 chasing John Connor - erasing that entire deficit by the time they reached the 3:30 mark in the 2nd.

Tomorrow morning I'm gonna regret staying up to watch this one.

[OCBucksFan]

Tied at the half... the "Benches execution" sounds like something that needs to happen.

[jlb1705]

Houston is doing everything that Orlando couldn't or wouldn't in their Game 2.

When a team gives up home court advantage by losing game 1 of a series, you can count on them playing with the ferocity of a cornered badger. Orlando rolled over, Houston has met the challenge.

Even if the Lakers win this one comfortably in the second half I think they've found out that they have a tough fight on their hands.

[purplehaze1213]

The Lakers have shown a bad habit of consistently blowing large leads this postseason. Against Utah it didn't really hurt them that much, but they aren't going to be able to get away with it against better teams like Houston.