Kobe Bryant carried the Lakers on his back
with 41 points and six rebounds, but it was Andrew Bynum's foul shots late in
overtime that gave Los Angeles a 103-102 victory over the Houston Rockets.
Bynum, who hit 3-of-4 at the line inside 44.2 seconds left in OT, had 17
points and 17 rebounds for the Lakers, who have won three in a row.
Ron Artest poured in 15 points and grabbed six rebounds against his former
team. Lamar Odom added 14 points and seven rebounds for Los Angeles, which
beat Houston in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals last year.
"I think we were semi satisfied with the mental toughness we showed given the
circumstances surrounding the game and the overtime. Physically, we didn't
push it that much, we had a couple of break downs, but it was a battle,"
Artest said. "It came down to the fourth quarter, you can't leave Trevor
(Ariza) open, he did exactly what he wanted to do, similiar to what he did in
the playoffs. It was the same Rockets team from last year, well coached,
spread the ball around and tough defense."
Luis Scola tallied 16 points and 13 boards for the Rockets, who had a three-
game winning streak snapped. Carl Landry had 20 points and eight boards off
the bench.
Trevor Ariza ended with 15 points, nine rebounds, and five assists versus his
former club while Aaron Brooks finished with 15 points and six helpers. Shane
Battier and Charles Hayes each added 14 points. Hayes also had 14 rebounds.
"We really stopped attacking. We have to be an attacking team and tried to
just go into isolation mode and run pick and roll. We are at our best when we
are in the open court attacking, taking 3's, attacking the basket and we sort
of got away from that and we have to do that every night no matter who we are
playing," Battier said.
With the score tied at 100 in overtime and the clock winding under a minute to
play, Bryant missed a jumper from the corner. However, Bynum collected the
rebound and was fouled on a layup attempt. He made both foul shots to put the
Lakers in front by two with 44.2 seconds left.
After a Houston timeout, Landry made a hook shot at the other end to tie the
game at 102 with 37.3 ticks to go. Bynum then made 1-of-2 foul shots to put LA
ahead 103-102 with 24.7 seconds remaining.
After an Odom foul on the floor left the Rockets with 13 seconds, Ariza took
the inbounds pass and was stripped by Derek Fisher, sealing the win for Los
Angeles.
Houston scored the first six points of the fourth, as a Landry layup made it
an 80-73 game with 10:16 remaining.
A Bryant turnaround jumper cut the deficit to 86-85 with 2:41 to go. Brooks
then drilled a trey to put the Rockets ahead 89-85 with 1:33 left.
LA fought back with seven straight points to take the lead with 30 seconds
left. Bryant got the flurry started with four free throws, tying the game at
89, and Artest sank a shot from beyond the arc following a Hayes turnover.
Landry took possession of a jump ball with 19.6 showing on the clock and found
Ariza, who drilled a trey of his own to deadlock things at 92 with 14.2 ticks
left.
The Rockets played great defense on Bryant during the last possession, which
ended without the Lakers getting a shot off as the game moved to overtime.
Down 20-13, the Lakers closed out the first quarter with a 9-2 spurt to tie
the contest at 22.
Los Angeles went on a 7-1 flurry shortly into the second to grab a six-point
edge as Shannon Brown's reverse layup capped the run. The Rockets responded
with eight straight points to re-take the lead and never trailed the rest of
the half, holding a 48-44 edge at the break.
A tight third period resulted in the Rockets nursing a 74-73 lead entering the
fourth.
Game Notes
The Rockets gave up 22 points off 20 turnovers...Bryant now owns eight career
40-point outings against Houston, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most
40-point performances ever registered against the Rockets...Houston
outrebounded the Lakers, 54-48...Houston shot 45.3 percent from the field,
while Los Angeles made 41.9 percent of its shots...The Lakers went 4-0 against
the Rockets in the regular season last year.
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