Another Laker entry, but it's the playoffs, what do you expect? Friday after work I met up with Keith at Hollywood Billiards to watch the game, and it was pretty embarrassing. LA fell behind by double digits in the first half and only managed to seriously threaten at the very end for a possession or two. The Rockets won and celebrated like they'd just won the championship. This set up Game 4 today, which the Lakers ended up winning (thankfully) to take a 3 games to 1 series lead, with Game 5 in LA on Wednesday. The big stories in the game today were Karl Malone scoring 30 points (becoming the oldest player in NBA history to score 30 points in a playoff game) to go with 13 rebounds; as well as Kobe Bryant coming up huge in the overtime to give LA the win.
The Lakers are really struggling against this Rockets team right now, in spite of the 3-1 series lead, and since the Spurs swept the Grizzlies in their series, that is who the Lakers have to face next. In other words, LA may have only one game left to get ready for the defending NBA champions who have a 15 game winning streak going right now and who will have home-court advantage in the next round and about a week off between now and their next game. LA is looking shaky to say the least. I've still got hope though because of the talent that is on the Lakers, but it will be an uphill battle to say the least. Anyway, I was glad to see them get the win today and I'm looking forward to them closing out the Rockets on Wednesday. The big concern there is whether Kobe will be able to make the game, and if so, will he end up missing any of it. Kobe has to be in Eagle, Colorado for the next three days in court for his rape case, and will have to fly straight from court to the game on Wednesday (something he did twice this year). Hopefully that won't affect the game too much cause LA really could use that victory.