LA With The A Game

Tonight in Houston, we saw why the world thought the Lakers were a lock for the Finals, as they simply brought a higher level of game than the Rockets could match.

The game was intense but not chippy, well-officiated, and everything you could hope for, except drama. The single biggest difference was that while the Lake Show went 8 of 35 from the arc in the first two games, they were 11 of 20 tonight. They led by double digits most of the way. For Fisticuffs Lovers, there was a questionable moment with 9:13 left when Von Wafer edged into a parachuting Sasha Vujacic, but honestly, the biggest problem from the play was hearing Jeff van Gundy pule about the state of the world today. You also had a late Testy ejection on a really borderline flagrant foul call against Pau Gasol, which more or less proved that the refs have one standard for Testy, and one for the rest of the NBA world. Not a great thing for Houston, that.

The signature play happened at the end of the third quarter, off an inbounds play with 3.5 seconds left. LA ran the old straight line pick play for Bryant to catch and shoot, the way the Bulls used to run for Jordan. Artest defended it perfectly, using his gym muscles to face the basket and force Bryant to make the catch near the sideline, 35 feet away from the hoop. Bryant went sideways to line it up from straightaway with Testy all over him, then rose up and drained it from just outside the tip-off circle. Just sick, really, the kind of play that only he and LeBron James can be expected to make in the Association this year. The shot capped a 24-14 quarter for the Lake Show, and gave them a 12-point lead. (And with 7 minutes left, Bryant had another ridiculous make when Shane Battier blocked it clean, and he just made a falling backwards runner while just trying to draw a foul. Shane Battier made him work, but he still had 33-6-3.)

For Houston, Testy missed with volume misser (10 of 23, 2 of 8 from distance, most of the misses early to build the hole), Yao Ming limped at the close and didn't overwhelm with his 19 and 14, and they just didn't get a very good game from anyone. I suspect they'll take another Game in this series, because I don't see the Lakers being disciplined enough to win again on the road in Game 4. But if Ming is hobbled again in Game 4, all bets are off... and he really didn't look all that good at the end of this one.