Lakers feel Rockets’ heat
HOUSTON -- Pau Gasol wandered around the locker room with a long metal crutch under each arm and athletic tape wrapped thickly around his swollen left ankle, symbolic of the Lakers’ overall health in the Western Conference.
They stumbled against the Houston Rockets and tumbled out of first place in the West, limping across the finish line of a 104-92 loss that was fairly close until the lopsided final few minutes Sunday at Toyota Center.
Kobe Bryant scored 24 points on erratic 11-for-33 shooting, and there was the ever-familiar part of the program where the Lakers got toasted by another point guard.
Rafer Alston scored a career-high 31 points and made a career-best eight three-point shots on 11 attempts, merely the beginning of the problems facing the Lakers the rest of their trip. They play Dallas on Tuesday, which means plenty of Jason Kidd, and Utah on Thursday, which translates to a lot of Deron Williams.
“At best, even if Pau was here, this was a difficult road trip,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “We’ll see what our team is made of. We’ll see what the guys can do in this situation.”
The Lakers (45-21) find themselves a game behind the Rockets (46-20) and in second place in the West after becoming the latest statistic in Houston’s 22-game winning streak. The only streak longer in league history was the Lakers’ 33-game run in 1971-72.
The Lakers also got a lesson in small ball from the Rockets, who improved to 10-0 since Yao Ming was sidelined for the season because of a foot injury.
Alston blistered the Lakers with several open three-pointers -- “Threes have to be contested,” Jackson said gruffly -- and reserve guard Bobby Jackson had 19 points in 20 minutes, including a three-pointer from the left corner that effectively ended the game, giving the Rockets a 96-86 lead with 3:22 to play.
The Lakers have been pilfered by point guards in recent games, be it Beno Udrih, T.J. Ford, Chris Paul and now Alston.
All along on Sunday, Bryant just couldn’t find any rhythm.
He played every minute until being lifted with 56 seconds to play and was bothered by Rockets forward Shane Battier pretty much the entire time.
Bryant made six of 17 shots in the first half and five of 16 in the second half, including two of 10 in the fourth quarter. He said his shot was “flat.”
“Obviously in the stretch, not having Pau down there, I’m going to have to shoot a lot more pull-up jump shots because teams now are going to be able to zone up and kind of crowd the lane on me,” he said. “I’ve got to knock those down. I’ve got to get in the gym, put a little bit more arc on the ball and I’ll be fine.”
Jackson had a different theory.
“I think Kobe tired,” he said. “He didn’t make any shots down the stretch. He wanted to play the whole game, and I kind of concurred that it would be OK if he tried it. But I thought he got tired in the last four or five minutes.”
Another concern for the Lakers is their slippage in numerous head-to-head tiebreakers.
They are now 1-2 against Houston, San Antonio and New Orleans. They play the Spurs and Hornets one more time each at Staples Center. They don’t play the Rockets again.
The Lakers are 2-1 against Utah and play the Jazz one more time. They have clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker against only one of the top six teams in the West -- Phoenix.
The Lakers had their chances to win the season series against the Rockets, primarily because Tracy McGrady didn’t score until making a six-foot runner with 2:54 left in the third quarter.
McGrady finished with 11 points on four-for-16 shooting. It didn’t matter.
The Lakers were as close as 86-84 after Jordan Farmar’s three-pointer with 6:07 to play, but the Rockets went on a 14-2 run from there. Battier made a three, Jackson made a three, and the Lakers couldn’t make anything.
A sign held up by a Rockets fan seemed to sum it all up: “L.A., you’re out of Gasol.”
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
The road to 33
Houston has the second-longest winning streak in the NBA but needs 11 more victories to catch the 1971-72 Lakers. A look at the Rockets’ next 11 games:
*--* DATE TEAM REC Tuesday Boston 52-13 Wednesday at New Orleans 44-21 Friday at Golden State 41-24 Saturday at Phoenix 44-22 March 24 Sacramento 30-36 March 26 Minnesota 15-50 March 30 at San Antonio 44-22 April 1 at Sacramento 30-36 April 3 at Portland 35-32 April 4 at Seattle 16-51 April 6 at Clippers 21-44 *--*
Source: NBA.com
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