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Meanwhile, the entire episode lit a fire under the Lakers. Actually, the fire was lit, this just stoked it. The Lakers came out aggressively from the night’s opening tip, jumped to a 39-25 lead after one period thanks to 15 points from Bryant and 13 from Pau Gasol (who finished with 22 and 14 boards), faltered in the second, then took control again in the second half.
Los Angeles was decidedly more aggressive than it was in Game 1, for the most part. It also helped that Yao Ming got into foul trouble and was not much of a factor, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Lakers also did a much better job of containing super-quick point guard Aaron Brooks, who had 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t deal with reserve forward Carl Landry, who had 21 points and 10 rebounds; 16 of his points came in the second quarter.
Yet they did what they needed to do to avoid disaster: Even the series, and give themselves momentum to try and go to Houston, win at least one of the pair there, and regain home-court advantage.
“Unfortunately the end of the third quarter (the Scola brouhahas) was kind of erratic and took the air out of the game,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “It set the tone for what happened and what’s going to happen.”
The Rockets had planned to play with brute force in this series. Being physical is their only shot against the more talented Lakers. And their plan has worked thus far: They going home with a split.
“We’re playing basketball,” Adelman said, “and we’re not backing down for anybody.”
But the Lakers often have to be reminded to mix it up, to counterpunch, to push back after being shoved. It isn’t second nature to them. Yet after Wednesday night, it might be easier to work up some aggression.
“We intend to win a championship,” Fisher said, “and whatever it takes to do that, we’re willing to do.”
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