Alright so welcome in to the full recap of tonight's game between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets headlined as Dwight Howard's first game against the Lakers since spurning LA for Houston. The Lakers drew first blood in their first head to head matchup with Dwight. To rehearse an old saying, it's better to win ugly than to lose pretty. And the Lakers did just that. They just got back from getting their ass kicked against the Mavs and they bounced back, it wasn't pretty, but the end result is what matters, which is getting the W.
So let's start out with the positives. The game ball is split among 3 players: Steve Blake, Wesley Johnson, and Jodie Meeks. Blake of course had that hot start in the 1st quarter, 3-3 from beyond the arc and finished 4-6 from the 3 point line, nailing that game winning 3 finishing with 14 points. Wesley Johnson, hustled on every play this game. Johnson hit that buzzer beating 3 to end the 1st Quarter, a crucial rebound and tip in the 4th, and hustling for the ball on the penultimate play to prevent a heartbreaking turnover and he finished with 16 points off the bench. Jodie Meeks, crucial 3s when we needed it the most especially that big one in the 4th to put us within two before the last Hack-a-Dwight foul (although it was under two minutes, but the Rockets inbounded the ball to him) and Meeks finished with 18 points. Those three players were basically the highlight of the game and they stepped it up today. The Lakers were collapsing under pressure on the brink of undergoing another meltdown but Blake, Meeks, and Johnson stayed calm and collected and their heroic performance tonight was the reason why the Lakers won the game in the last seconds.
It's pretty tough to highlight a negative this game, other than the fact that Gasol had a piss poor performance tonight. Pau just chipped in 2 points on 1-10 shooting from the field, credit to the interior of the Rockets' D with Asik and Howard, they shut down his low post play and daring him to take shots, although the majority of Gasol's jump shots were good looks considering most of them came from Steve Nash dribbling off the middle. Gasol had his worse offensive display, but he grabbed 12 rebounds and some of those were critical to keep the Lakers' hopes alive to eek out a victory. Gasol was awful offensively, but he managed to hold his own on the defensive side limiting Asik and Howard to just 21 points in the paint. One crucial negative though or make that two consistency and turnovers. In the 1st half, the Lakers were shooting lights out on 3 but in the 2nd half, they couldn't make some until late in both quarters of the 2nd half and it was frustrating to watch that because it is critical to close out the game. Same with the Raiders, they start fast, jump into an early lead and then all of a sudden the offense shuts down leaving the defense to win it. Keep in mind this Laker team outside of Gasol, Kobe, Nash, Blake, and Kaman is relatively young and majority of them spent their careers as 1st round draft busts. When you start fast, you gotta keep the foot on the gas, brake when you start losing control and regain some of that composure because that's the fundamental of closing a game out.
Overall like the old saying says, it's better to win ugly than to lose pretty. I mean the Lakers played beautiful basketball in the 1st half and in the 2nd they started to lose control, but they stayed poised and that's why they got the victory. I'm not gonna be a homer and literally flipping the bird to Dwight because after all Dwight was only with the Lakers for one season it's not like he's a Laker legend because he was just for rent. However, it's a way to provide closure and move on.
Anyway, this will be my last Laker post for National TV games until like December 13, when the Lakers take on OKC (It's a Friday game, but I'm already done with Finals by that time). Barring any NBA TV games, I will provide quick recaps from stat sheets and available highlights for localized TV games beginning tomorrow when the Lakers hit the road again to the Big Easy to take on the Pelicans. I'll be back on Sunday to post for the Raiders' game against the New York Giants.
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