Game 4 Recap: Never Underestimate the Heart of a

Champion. And on Sunday afternoon, only one basketball team looked like champions. And it wasn't the team that has been predicted to win the championship by "experts" since the end of last season. It wasn't the team with the supposed best player in the world. It wasn't so-called deepest team in the NBA. It wasn't the team that barely lost in the Finals last year without their starting center, which everyone thought meant that there was no way they would lose this year. It was the team that has been doubted all year long. It was the team that was missing two of its best three players, a combined 45 million dollars a year. It was the team that came out and played inspired, smart, hard, free, emotional, prideful basketball. It wasn't the Lakers. It was the Houston Rockets. Those relentless, tenacious, persistent Rockets. I've never seen a team go through so much in one year only to bounce back stronger every single time. I don't give a damn if we lose Games 5 and 6 by 78 points combined, what the Rockets have done in this series and this season is more impressive than anything any other team has done all year long. Now that that's out of the way, on to business.

The Good

-Aaron Brooks played the best basketball that I've ever seen him play. With Derek Fisher's Dead Body guarding him, Brooks was able to get to the basket, find his teammates, and wreak general havoc. All 6 feet of him.

-The Rockets' defense. We played stifling, determined defense, holding the Lakers to 54 points in three quarters. Even though we let them back into the game in the end of the fourth quarter, but 45 minutes of lock down defense makes up for 3 minutes of falling asleep at the wheel.

-Shane Battier played the game of his Rockets career, scoring 23 points and playing his usual bothersome, effective, Kobe pamphlet-studying defense on Bryant that we've grown to love and expect from him.

The Bad

-Ron Artest's Hero Complex kicked in and he took some shots that made we want to rape a Coloradan. We won despite Ron-Ron, not because of him, and that can't happen again if we want to win Game 5.

-Pau Gasol scored 30 points, and even though some of them came in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided, he looked comfortable going against the likes of Scola and Hayes. In other Pau-related news, his beard actually covers the whole underside of his chin/neck, almost reaching his Adam's Apple. I'm starting to think it's more of a fungus than facial hair, and that it actually has a mind of it's own and is spreading by itself. For everyone with vision's sake, let's hope Pau regains control of his face. Until then, those damn blind people win again.

-I just insulted blind people and made fun of a sexual assualt case within two paragraphs of each other. Other than that, the Rockets played a hell of a game and I can't really find any more fault with it. We lost some of our intensity towards the end of the game, but that happens when you've been giving your full, unbridled effort for 3 and a half quarters.

The Ugly








Dick Bavetta (L), one of our officials for Game 4.







What Happened

The Rockets attacked the Lakers from the opening tip, beating them to loose balls, defending with intensity, and generally out-hustling the girls in purple for the duration of the game. I don't know if we were inspired by Yao, everyone counting us out, or Lamar Odom's nose, but the Rockets played with more effort than the Lakers, and that translated into the win. The Rockets were also on fire for most of the game. I compared the Rockets' offense to a man's Magic Johnson in the sense that it only needed to function for us to have a chance, and in Game 4 we found the Viagra. That might have been in poor taste, but I liked it. And spent 5 minutes on Google looking for a funny phrase for a man's little man, so you bet your ass I was going to use "Magic Johnson" once I found it. Back on to the point (it just happened that time), the Rockets dominated the Lakers today, and that's really all there is to say. I have a hard time nitpicking when we played such an impressive game, so I'm not going to try. Like Phil Jackson said in his post-game interview, "Give them some f*cking credit". So that's what I'll do. I'll give them some f*cking credit.

The Point

The Rockets lost Yao, everyone thought this series was over, we came out and proved them wrong. If this storyline sounds familiar, it's because the same thing happened last spring. And this spring for that matter, except Yao was replaced with Mcgrady this time. No matter what happens after today I'm proud of the Rockets for finding strength in numbers when we needed it the most. I can't imagine what it feels like to go against a team that already might be better than you when you're healthy without your best player, but the Rockets do. And thanks to some hot shooting and tough defense, we now also know how it feels to beat that team. Game 4 went better than I dared to hope it would, but now comes the hard part. Stealing a game [again] in Los Angeles. But that's a different topic for a different day. Today, I'm glad we were able to keep this playoff run alive for a little longer and promise ourselves another game at the Toyota Center. The better team won today, it just wasn't the team everyone expected it to be. Go Rockets.

Game 4 Preview: Hoping Against Hope

By now, any Rockets fan has seen the news. Our talented, hard-working, oft-injured, 7'6" center from Shanghai will be out for the rest of the postseason. In other words, goodbye 2008-2009. I believe we will win tomorrow, but I do not believe we can win this series without Yao Ming. He is the best player on our team, and you don't beat a team that might have beat you healthy without the best player on your team. Yeah it sucks, but then again so does losing in the Finals, and you don' t see the Lakers bitching about not having their starting center last year. Wait..scratch that. Let the bitching begin. But like it or not, we have a game to play tomorrow. And that means we have a game to preview.

The Good

-For the second time in three games, Kobe Bryant had a poor shooting night against the Rockets. I have to attribute this to Battier and his pesky, relentless, Kobe-manual-reading defense. I don't see why this won't continue.

-We actually match up better against the Lakers without Yao. I am not saying we are better without him, far from it, I'm just saying that Pau has been playing Yao very well during the series, doing a much better job of poking the ball away from him and fronting him than I've seen from him before. On defense we also might end up putting Scola on Pau, which is a much better matchup for him than Odom or Ariza. Also, they could end up treating us to the greatest Spanish trash-talking matchup ever. How Scola's hair does against Pau's Pubic-Beard is key for us tomorrow.

-Derek Fisher is back. If we are to have a chance tomorrow, Aaron Brooks has to use his quickness to score, get in the paint, and wreak general havoc on the Lakers defense. That'll be a lot easier if Derek Fisher's Repuation As A Good Player is guarding him.

The Bad

-Yao Ming isn't playing. There's nothing to really say here, we know what he does for our team. Losing his 20-10 is going to hurt. Losing our 9,000 fans who watch basketball just for him is probably going to hurt just as much. So will losing his agonized facial expressions that I've grown to love. Nobody can make sitting on a bench look as painful as Yao can. Not only does losing Yao ruin this series for us, it ruins it for the rest of the league, the fans, and the Lakers. Beating us without our best player is not the same as beating us when we're at healthy, and you can bet your subscription to O, The Oprah Magazine that they wanted to beat us with our full team.

-The Lakers are still the best offensive team in the NBA. They actually played a pretty sub-par game against us Friday, with their two best players shooting a combined 15-39. Stopping them is going to be even harder without 7 and a half feet of China's hopes and dreams in the paint to contest their shots.

-Our offense has a tendency to stagnate, and without Yao we are going to be more prone to that. We can't let it turn into the Ron Artest show, and ball movement and smart decisions are going to be more important than ever tomorrow.

The Ugly

Vanessa Bryant. Not that she's ugly. She's actually far from it. I just want to remind everyone that Kobe cheated on this woman. Look at her, read that last sentence again, smile.









What Has To Happen

For the Rockets to win Game 4 we are going to have to do what we have done all year long, except we're going to have to do it better and without our best player.

First and foremost, the Rockets need to defend with intensity and hustle. No letting players get open looks like in Game 3, every shot needs to be contested for us to have a chance. Despite their best efforts to convince themselves otherwise in Game 3, Ariza, Farmar, Walton, and Odom are not three point shooters and we can't allow them to look like they are. A simple hand in their face will help with that.

We have to continue to out-rebound the Lakers. This is obviously easier said than done after losing Yao, but we still have to find a way to do it. Rebounding is going to have to be a more of a team effort. Every time a shot goes up, all five players on the floor for the Rockets have to box a man out. Landry, Scola, and Hayes are going to have to work especially hard tomorrow afternoon. Not that bringing the effort is ever a problem for these guys.

The bench has to step up. With Landry most likely becoming a starter, Lowry, Wafer, and Hayes are going to have to out-produce the Lakers' bench. Say what you want about their names, but Sasha, Shannon, and the rest of the girls can actually play some pretty good basketball. This seems like a good time to bring up that when asked about the craziest thing that ever happened to him as a basketball player, Sasha Vujacic recalled a time when a girl asked him to sign her panties. I don't really know how that affects Game 4 at all, I just think it's something you should hear. Anyways, the Rockets' bench has to outperform the Lakers', which is only made tougher by Jordan Farmar remembering that he is, in fact, and NBA player sometime during Game 3.

The offense has to work. Think of this game as a married couple's desperate attempt at having a child, with the Rockets' offense being the male's go-to guy. It doesn't have to work well, it just needs to function long enough to get the job done. I don't care how ugly and unsatisfactory it might be, the Rockets offense has to perform. Artest has to stay within the offense and take smart shots, which he has done a decent job of all series long. Battier needs to get more shots, and Wafer simply cannot go 2-10 again.

The Point

So here we are, punching just to have a puncher's chance. The Rockets have played through injuries all year, and we're going to have to do it again tomorrow afternoon. It's going to be hard, but so is everything else worth having right? Rudy Tomjonavich once told us to "never underestimate the heart of a champion," and the Rockets have proven his words time and again this year. We have played with heart and determination all season long and I expect us to play every second like it's our last tomorrow. Of course, I'd have a 7'6" heart with phenomenal basketball skills and footwork, but we have to work with what we have. We are going to have to play as a team tomorrow to win as a team, and luckily for us, that's what we do best. We can't control that the basketball gods seem to have a passion for kicking us in the shins, but we can control how much effort we put in tomorrow. Tomorrow, we play for pride, we play for the fans, we play for the chance to let Kobe know that the NBA Championship isn't just going to be handed to him. Just like that girl in Colorado wasn't handed to him. Uncalled for, I know, but I'm bitter and it made me feel better. Sexual assualt cases aside, tomorrow, more than anything else, we play for our franchise player, the man who led us out of the first round for the first time since 1998, the best center to put on a Rockets jersey since that guy we called The Dream. He fought through a knee collision that would have ended T-Mac's career in Game 1 and through a hairline fracture in Game 3 for us. I hate to sound sentimental, but tomorrow afternoon we're fighting for him. Go Rockets.

Yao Sprains Ankle

Yao has a sprained ankle and will be re-evaluated tomorrow before Game 4. We need him to play, and we need him to play well, so let's hope he's alright.

UPDATE: Yao will miss the rest of the playoffs with a hairline fracture. He doesn't need surgery, but our playoff dreams sure as hell do. Another year, another injury for the Great Wall. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I can't really describe how I feel right now, but if I had to it would be something like this: It feels like someone kicked me in the balls twice, punched me in the stomach, and then when I kneeled down from that, they kneed me in the mouth. And then they repeated the whole cycle. Twice. And it's not a good feeling. But that's neither here nor there.

And Yao, thank you for refusing to come out of the game last night till the end of the fourth even though you were visibly in pain. Thank you for coming back to play in Game 1 and winning the game for us. Thank you for leading us out of the first round, putting those days of depending on Mcgrady behind us. Thank you for showing us how it felt to be proud of your team again. Get well soon, we'll give 'em hell next year.

Game 3 Recap: Venting

The easiest way to sum up Game 3 would be this: the Lakers' role players all found their stroke, confidence, NBA talent, whatever the hell was missing, and the only thing the Rockets did exceptionally well was turn the ball over. It was a long frustrating night of good shooters missing open looks for the guys in red and guys who are not expected to consistently hit threes (I'm looking at you, Trevor) consistently hitting them. I really am in no mood to recap a game that broke my heart on at least four different occasions, but someone has to get the readership up right?

The Good

-Kobe Bryant had another human night, scoring 33 points on 28 shots. He took 8 free throws, but 4 of them were late in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided. His Spanish partner went 4-11 with 13 points, so there's no complaining there either. What's scary was that they didn't seem to miss Pau very much.
-The Rockets showed that when we defended hard, rotated well, and contested open shots, they can stop the Lakers' offensive machine. Put your hand down Sasha, I meant the Lakers' offense as a whole. The reason this game was relatively close and not an absolute blowout was because of the Rockets' ability to defend.

The Bad

-The Rockets turned the ball over 17 times to the Lakers' 6. With a team as talented offensively as the Lakers you cannot afford to give them such a heavy turnover advantage. They thrive on pushing the pace of the game and were able to make life easier for their struggling offense by a steady dose of fast break points. Also, the last thing any human being with eyes wants to see is the sight of Sasha Vujacic/Pau Gasol running down the court on the fast break, their hair flowing in the wind. Blind people, you caught a break here.
-The Rockets offense sputtered in the second and third quarters, putting up 34 points in the two combined. The defense kept the game close, but there's no way the Rockets were going to win without being able to put the ball in the basket. The Rockets' offensive struggles are like a scar on the face of the perfect girl. Usually her other great qualities are good enough to overcome it, but last night she forgot her makeup.
-Lamar Odom realized that he is one of the most versatile, talented players in the NBA and that the whole reason they got him was so when offenses focused too much on Bryant, he would score. He had 16, matching his point total for the series up till Game 3.
-The Lakers' role players, known by Lakers' fans as the "bench mob" and by everyone else as the "wait they really have someone named Sasha AND someone named Shannon? And these two guys actually play? mob," started to make the open looks that they got. Trevor Ariza is included here, as he went 3-4 from behind the arc.
-Yao Ming left the court limping in the fourth quarter and looked as though he was playing through pain for most of the second half. He said he's good to go, but let's face it, if Yao's not at his turnaround shooting, jump hooking, agonized face making best, we are not winning this series.

What Happened
After getting into the second round and taking home court advantage from the Lakers, the Rockets strayed from what had gotten us this far. We came out flat in the third quarter, allowing the Lakers to build a cushion that we were never really able to erase. I hate bitching about the referees because I usually believe that bad calls even themselves out over the course of a year, but Game 3 was a whole new level of poor officiating. An example that comes to mind was in the fourth quarter when Pau Gasol was trying to manhandle Yao in the post, which the referees actually ignored until Pau said "Screw it, I want to see just how dumb these refs actually are" and threw Yao to the ground. That's all I'm going to say on the officiating, that it was bad. Really, really, really, game influence-ingly bad. Yao went down with an injury and for the 107th time in the last four years I found myself asking God why bad things always happen to good people and why he made my life's hopes and dreams revolve around a 7'6" Asian man. We turned the ball over way too much to have a chance, the only thing we have really done well this series. To put it simply, we're not going to win if we keep that up. We missed our threes, going 6-19, 2-12 after that 4-7 start. The Lakers started to run their offense and make open shots, which apparently is actually what NBA teams are SUPPOSED to do. Who would have guessed, right? Add those things up and you have a game that was never really as close as it seemed and 18,000 sad, sad faces.

The Point
After an impressive Game 1 win in which we stole home court from the Lakers, they marched into the Toyota Center and took it right back. We're down, but we're not out. I'd like to remind you that in 1995 we knocked of 2nd seeded Phoenix in 7 games as the 6 seed, so despite my attitude, all is not lost. The difference is that the 1995 Rockets were not missing two of their best three players, which we might be if Yao can't go Sunday. And yes, I said two of our best three players. You can say all you want about how he's declined or injury prone, but Mutumbo is still a huge part of our team. So what now? We dust ourselves off, make the necessary adjustments, and pray to Guede, the Haitian Vodoo god of fertility, that Yao Ming is starting at center on Sunday.