Lakers-Rockets Game Seven: Goliath Chooses To Show Up

Today in Los Angeles, the Lakers played defense and went up 17-4 in the early going, and that was really all that there was to this one. It was 51-31 at the half and the team traded baskets in the second half, giving the Lake Show a 4-3 series win with an 89-70 win.

The Lakers got a very big game from Pau Gasol (21-18-1, with 3 blocks on 10-of-19 shooting), who finally figured that he should crush Chuck Hayes. They also finally got a decent game out of Andrew Bynum, who was 6-of-7 in 22 minutes with 14-6-0 and 2 blocks. Despite Kobe Bryant being mostly contained by the Battier/Artest combo (4 of 12 from the field, 14-7-5 with 3 steals and 2 blocks), this one was never in doubt, mostly because the defense held the Rockets to 37% from the floor.

For Houston, just simply getting to Game 7 without Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutumbo has to be something of a moral victory, but the simple fact is that this Lakers team is heart-free, so it can't feel that great to lose to them. If they ever get health from their top people -- well, I don't think they ever will -- they might get further than Final 8 status, and their management has managed to find some useful pieces from non-traditional places. I'm having a hard time imagining how McGrady is a part of this team after this year's career suicide, but maybe they can ship him out for a useful piece.

What they really need is for Aaron Brooks and/or Kyle Lowry to develop into a top-flight point guard tandem, rather than simply some guys who can make awful point guards (Derek Fisher, Jordan Farmer, Steve Blake, etc.) look bad. It would also be nice if they could get Testy to actually rebound the ball (5.1 per 34.8 minutes this year, which is just criminally light for a 6'-7" 260 guy who mostly plays the 3) and stop shooting threes (40% this year, 34% for his career), but I can't see how Testy is going to change his spots at age 30, in his 10th season.

Getting back to the Lake Show, they now get a Denver team that they've owned in recent years, with home court advantage. The Nugs are rested, have some very good defensive bigs (Nene, Kenyon Martin and Birdman Anderson) that could give Gasol and Lamar Odom some real trouble, and a potential closer in Carmelo Anthony. The Nugs are also playing with house money, since no one thinks they can make it to the Finals outside of Colorado. But they also aren't likely to hurt the Lakers as much at point guard, since Chauncey Billups isn't the kind of quicksilver killer that destroys Fisher at this point in his career, and they've never been able to stop Kobe Bryant... especially a Kobe Bryant that is going to truly enjoy the absence of Battier/Artest.