Back to Cali: Time for Rockets to Put Lakers Away

Every time the Lakers, the national media, and even Houstonians like yours truly count the Rockets out, they find a way to change all our minds. After a forty-point drubbing in LA in game 5, the Rockets faced elimination last night at Toyota Center. In true Clutch City fashion, they hitched their wagon to Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks for a scrappy, emphatic win, sending the series back to Los Angeles.

Scola contributed 24 points and 12 boards to provide a inside-out presence to counter-balance speedy Brooks, who added 26. Carl Landry made the most of his time as a sixth man, creating a ridiculous +19 +/- while exposing the weakness of LA's post players. Andrew Bynum should've just stuck to dating models, because his 0 points and 7 boards could easily have been replaced by just about anybody, including your grandmother and any one of Shawn Kemp's illegitimate children.

What about Kobe? To paraphrase Jacob and Ben's exchange on the Lost finale, what about Kobe? Sure, he got his 32 points, but it took 27 shots to reach that plateau, and that was against an under-the-weather Shane Battier and the considerably slower Landry. Or is Landry that much slower? Kobe's looking winded and vulnerable, and if the Lakers should pull this out, Kobe will be too battered to run with the Nuggets.

So we don't have home court advantage in game 7. Or Yao Ming. Or Tracy McGrady. Or a coach with an English professor goatee. Or the most petulant superstar in the Association. Or Jack Effing Nicholson. Who cares? This is Clutch City, mofos. Is anybody ready for the return of the Kiss of Death? Get loud and rowdy, y'all: this is the best, most fun to watch Rockets team since Dream retired, and they deserve our support.

Game 7 airs Sunday at 2:30pm on ABC. For the opposite perspective, check out our sister site LAist, if they're not stuck in the only traffic worse than ours.

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photo: flickr user sulla55