With the absence of Yao, LA should dominate, right? Wrong.

on 05 10, 2009

Were the Lakers closing the bars last night in Houston? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were binge drinking to the news of Yao Ming going down for the season with a broken foot. It certainly looked that way today.

I think I speak for the majority when I say I thought the Lakers would cruise past Houston with the loss of their 7 ft. 5 center. Well, I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon when the Rockets tied the series up at 2-2 after they humiliated the Lakers in the Toyota Center. The 99-87 final score is not indicative of the Rockets’ dominance over LA.

With the absence of Yao, the Rockets needed some other players to step up. Houston PG Aaron Brooks poured in a career-high 34 points, Shane Battier dropped 23 and Scola recorded another triple-double. Although Yao’s replacement wasn’t much of an offensive threat, Chuck Hayes grabbed 9 boards and caused some problems for LA on the defensive end.

What is LA’s deal? Some games they look lackadaisical and unmotivated. Where’s that emotion and heart that so many other teams play with? I just haven’t seen it from the Lakeshow. In some ways, it’s insulting and difficult to watch. Come playoff time, I don’t like to see any team playing as careless as LA did today.

One of the few Lakers that played somewhat respectable today was Pau Gasol. The hideous looking Gasol shot 11 of 17 from the field to finish with 30 pts and 9 boards. On the other hand, Andrew Bynum continued his playoff dominance, dropping 0 pts to go along with his imposing 2 rebounds in 12 minutes of PT.

Now I’m not saying that Houston will go on to win this series, because odds are they will not, however, the Lakers should be humiliated after today’s game. I’m sure LA will be ready to play when they bring game 5 back to the Staples Center, but teams like the Houston Rockets should not be taken lightly. If Los Angeles plays like they did today, Houston will stomp all over them. I’ll take a team with more heart and determination over an apathetic team with more talent any day.

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