Pau Gasol led the Lakers to a routine 89–70 victory in Game 7 against the Houston Rockets on Sunday. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
With that phrase alone, one would think Kobe would go off for at least 35 points to lead his team to victory. Instead Bryant was a facilitator on Sunday with only 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, as his Lakers were still able to trounce the Houston Rockets by 19 points in an 89–70 victory.
While Bryant had just an average game by his lofty standards, the Lakers’ second star was the one that shone brightly as forward/center Pau Gasol recorded a double-double, scoring 21 points and ripping down 18 boards.
With Yao Ming injured, Los Angeles was dominant in the paint with their large size advantage in the post. They out-rebounded the undersized and undermanned Rockets by 22.
The play in the paint helped lead to Houston’s turnovers and poor shooting. The Rockets were not only taking bad shots, but also lower percentage shots as they had trouble establishing anything in the lane.
The Lakers played inconsistently throughout the series, which lead to the do or die Game 7, something Bryant noted after the game.
“Our effort could be much better, you know, in Game 4 and Game 6 but still, Houston played extremely well,” said Bryant.
“In a series, it’s about making adjustments. That’s what we were able to. We made our adjustments. We came out and were ready to go. You can’t take anything away from this Houston team, but we definitely could have played a lot harder.”
The Rockets were led by lighting quick point guard Aaron Brooks’s 13 points, who point guard Derek Fisher and the other Laker guards had trouble keeping track of all series.
Forward Shane Battier, who was not a factor offensively with just three points in the losing effort, talked about his team’s lack of energy coming out of the gate as the biggest struggle to overcome in the game.
“Coming in here for Game 7, we knew they were going to give us their best shot, especially in the first quarter. To be honest with you, we just didn’t have energy to match it,” said Battier post-game.
“Unfortunately, after we got past the first quarter, we played them pretty straight up, but the damage had been done at that point.”
The damage was complete by halftime as Los Angeles extended a 10 point first quarter lead to 20, leading 51–31.
When asked what his team has learned from this series, Bryant joked, “that we’re bipolar.”
Being bipolar is not something the Lakers can do anymore as they now move on to the conference finals to face a Denver Nuggets team that is deeper and more talented than the Rockets.
The Nuggets are led by a veteran point guard in Chauncey Billups, who has been a floor general since he arrived in Denver via a midseason trade, and one of the game’s most prolific scorers in forward Carmelo Anthony.
Battle Tested
But the seven-game series also did something for the Lakers that they did not experience last year in their playoff run to the finals, and that was being battle tested.
Last year, Los Angeles cruised to the NBA finals to face the Boston Celtics, who were battle tested, going seven games in the first two rounds and six games in the conference finals before defeating the Lakers in six to win the championship.
Not only having to grind out individual games, but grind out an entire series and become battle tested in the playoffs is something Bryant felt hindered his team in the finals last season.
After the series they just had against the scrappy Rockets whose “us against the world” mentality helped them extend the series to seven games, the Lakers have been battle tested and should be ready for what’s to come in the next round as they try to make it to their second consecutive finals appearance.
Magic Defeat Reigning Champs, Advance to Conference Finals
In the nightcap Game 7, the Orland Magic beat the defending champion Boston
Celtics convincingly in Boston 101–82.
The Magic were led by small forward Hedo Turkoglu with 25 points and center
Dwight Howard, who recorded another double-double with 12 points and 16
rebounds, while also recording five blocks.
Shooting guard Ray Allen led the way for the Celtics with 23 points while point
guard Rajon Rondo chipped in a double-double with 10 points and 10
assists.
The Magic will now head to the Eastern conference finals to face the best team
in the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Small forward Lebron James led
the Cavs to not only the best record in the NBA this season, but also the best
home record. The Cavs went 39–2 at home in the regular season and are perfect in the post-season thus far at 8-0.
They have won each game by double digits.
Matt Sugam also writes for The Daily Targum at Rutgers Univeristy.
