Rockets 82
Brooks 20 pts; Scola 12 pts, 9 rebs; Yao 12 pts, 8 rebs
Lakers 111
Bryant 23 pts; Gasol 20 pts, 15 rebs; Farmar 16 pts, 6 ast
The Lakers broke out of an early shooting slump to come from behind and produce another dominant win to move to 5-0 against the Rockets on Sunday.
After starting poorly the Lakers found themselves 16 points behind at one point in the second quarter. But a 22-7 run to finish the half saw the Lakers up 50-48 at the break. LA were never behind again improving to 65.8% shooting from the field in the second half to see them pull away before demolishing the Rockets in the fourth.
Other than their free scoring in the second half, one of the keys this win was limiting two time NBA scoring title winner Tracy McGrady to just three points. He shot 1-11 from beyond the arc and was prevented building up any rhythm by the defense.
As good as the Lakers were offensively in the second half, the Rockets were poor. They failed to build up any sort of momentum and the Lakers exploded to win the fourth 39-17.
This was a good win for the Lakers over one of the teams who could challenge them for their Western Conference crown, but not if they play like this.
LA have now won each of their first five games (for the first time in five years) by an average of 22.4 points and are still yet to hit top gear. Along with a great offensive display in the second half there was also a lot of scrappy play, 18 turnovers will not please coach Phil Jackson and he will look to rectify this before tomorrow’s trip to Dallas (live on channel five Tuesday night 1:00am).
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