Lakers and Rockets set for tasty 7th game
Game 7.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I mean, in all the two letter combination’s there are in the world of sports, there are not to many better than Game 7.
Baseball and Hockey feed off of nerve racking moments where one move or one play can turn the whole game and thus season around for the team, but basketball is special in the fact that the tide can turn back and forth back and forth in a matter of seconds.
You score, you’re up two. They score, Tie game. You score, up two again. They turn it over, you don’t score, they hit a big three, and all of the sudden, they go up one. Back and forth once again. If your a fan of either of the two teams, and even if you are not, your heat goes up and down with each pass, with each shot, and in these playoffs, with each controversial and decisive call or non call.
Tomorrow morning, the basketball loving public will be delighted to quite a treat: Two of these much loved Game 7s. While Boston and Orlando should be a fine game, the NBA world will most be looking forward to the mid afternoon (or early afternoon for those watching from Staples Center) tango between two Western Heavyweights
In one corner, you have the Los Angeles Lakers. Class of the NBA all year long. Not only has the discussion been Kobe or Lebron for MVP, but it has also been Los Angeles or Cleveland for NBA supremacy. With the first or second best player in the game, depending on who you ask, leading the way, it looked to be easy sailing for an LA team that was facing a Houston team that had not been in the second round since Sir Charles Barkley played in a Rocket jersey that was a lot different and a lot uglier.
The Lakers had it all, the star in Kobe, a great player in Pau Gasol, a healthy Andrew Bynum, the veteran Derek Fisher, the versatile Lamar Odom, the exciting Trevor Ariza, the sharpshooting Sasha Vuajacic and the Jewish Jordan Farmar.
The Rockets were a gritty team that just didn’t have enough to beat the Lakers. Yao and Ron Artest were supposed to be the only forces on a team that didn’t have enough steam to power over the Laker mountain.
Well, somebody forgot to tell the Rockets, and they have turned into the Little Red Rocket that could. In game 1 of the series, the Rockets shocked everybody outside of the 713, the 281 and the 832. Game 1 ended up only being an 8 point game, but LA were always trailing, always fighting, and very very awestruck with the fight that the Rockets were putting up. While not many thought Houston had a shot of winning the series, LA seemed to see it as a complete push over, and yet after one game, they were the ones getting pushed over.
What the Lakers seemed to have forgot that night is this: The Rockets might not have the star power of LA, but they do have the brute force and physicality to push LA. We all knew how tough this team was, but nobody could have expected what would transpire.
There have been hard fouls, flagrant fouls and dirty fouls. There have been referee over reactions and under reactions. There have been countless turning points because of the tough physical play, and the game, which has turned into a fantastically entertaining series has almost taken a back seat at times.
But it has been almost a storybook series. The pretty against the gritty, beauty taking on the best. Sure, LA has turned up the physicality, but Houston are special at this. Artest, Battier, Scola bring a certain grittiness and attitude that doesn’t really exist on the Lakers. Kobe has shown toughness over the years, but barely matches up to Artest, and outside of him is a Laker team that is not that unfairly labeled a “soft” team.
The series has been so great that we haven’t even gotten to the fact that Houston lost Yao Ming mid series (along with Dekembe Mutumbo lost earlier in the playoffs and Tracy McGrady, lost during regular season), and went on to win the next game, evening the series at two wins, and adding to a series that has failed to make sense thus far. Add in a 40 point Laker win in game 5 and another tough nosed, Lakers-were-never-really-got-going win for Houston in Game 6, and you have a Game 7 that will provide the same amount of intrigue as we saw with the Celtics and the Bulls, and have the advantage of being a later round and a better conference.
As far as a prediction, I see hard hits ahead. I see diving for lose balls and argued calls. I see brash talent on one side and unquestioned teamwork and drive talent on the other. I see the cliche “expect the unexpected” to become true, and in the end, I see a Laker team who will have their hands full when they take on Denver the next round, and a Houston team that will have the same “no please don’t go” feeling that we saw with the Bulls, when they “Go Fishing” tomorrow night on TNT.
Whatever happens, this a series that has given us a lot, and will give us even more when we reach once again that mouth watering two word phrase:
Game 7.
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