Rookie power forward Carl Landry took a flying leap into the collective hearts of Houston sports fans last night with a gritty performance that helped the Rockets eek out a 94-92 victory against the Utah Jazz in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
On a night when every Houstonian who ordered a Heineken actually received his or her beer of choice, guard Tracy McGrady led the charge to give the Rockets a fighting chance in the best-of-seven game series by scoring 27 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter. McGrady was finally able to exorcise his last period demons in the series and came up clutch in the final 15 minutes of the game.
However, the real story of the showdown was the tooth-gritting play of Landry. Late in the second quarter, the former Purdue standout took an elbow to the face from Jazz forward and notorious Rocket-killer Carlos Boozer, and subsequently a tooth tumbled out of his mouth. With blood all over his face Landry was relegated to the sideline as trainers attempted to stop the bleeding. Despite the injury and correlating pain Landry reentered the game only to end up saving the Rockets from defeat.
How?
In the final seconds of the game with the Rockets holding a one-point lead, Jazz point guard Deron Williams drove to the basket only to have his potential game winner blocked by the "toothless wonder" known as Landry. The "block heard 'round the Bayou City" gave the Rockets new life in a suddenly intriguing match-up and placed Landry alongside former Rockets playoff heroes such as Hakeem Olajuwon, Kenny Smith, and Sam Cassell.
Game 4 of the series will take place Saturday, April 26 at 9:30pm CST.
Photo courtesy of SwoLy-D from clutchfans.net
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