Lakers Regain Home Court With Win in Houston

The Lakers regained home court advantage with a 108-94 win against the Houston Rockets, but it was anyone’s gain in the hotly-contested first half.

Playing without starting point guard, Derek Fisher, the Lakers used the transition speed supplied by Jordan Farmar to match up with the Rockets, who for the most part kept the Lakers out of the paint in the first half. Still, the Lakers managed to squeak out a two-point lead, 50-48, by halftime.

The story of the first half was turnovers for the Houston Rockets and poor post defense by the Lakers. The Rockets had 11 turnovers leading to 14 Laker points. The Lakers on the other hand had just three turnovers. But the Rockets out-rebounded the Lakers 25-18 and were hot from the three-point line hitting on 4-of-7.

Playing poor post defense the entire first half, Lakers needed to get more involved on that end. On the offensive end, they needed to get Pau Gasol more involved. He had 22 points and 14 rebounds in Game 2 but only four points and three rebounds in the first half tonight.

With the Rockets defense collapsing on Kobe Bryant every time he drove into the paint, it boiled down the other Lakers needing to make their open jump shots. They weren’t able to do it in the first half, but it would be different in the third quarter as Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom and Luke Walton all hit from outside.

The Lakers outscored the Rockets 24-14 in the third quarter to open a 74-62 lead while the Rockets just shot six-of-25. The Rockets had managed to cut the Lakers lead to nine, but Kobe Bryant hit a three-point shot as the quarter ended.

With Gasol starting to fade on the defensive boards in the fourth quarter, the Rockets managed to cut into the Lakers lead until Lamar Odom made his presence known, making sure the Rockets didn’t get many second chance points.

Kobe Bryant helped the Lakers maintain a double-digit lead hitting another three-pointer, this one in front of Ron Artest right before the shot clock ran out. Bryant was four-of-six from beyond the arc and a game-high 33 points. He also had three blocked shots including one on Yao Ming.

Lamar Odom made up for Pau Gasol’s lack of offense with16 points (7-11) including two-of-two from the three-point line to go with his 13 rebounds.

But the real story for the Lakers tonight was the play of Jordan Farmar, the forgotten point guard, who played an inspired game all night. Farmar dictated the up tempo game that put the Lakers ahead in the series two-to-one.

He finished with 12 points but more importantly seven assists and just one turnover in his 33 minutes. He had the highest plus-minus score of all the Lakers with a +18. Kobe Bryant was second with a +16. Shannon Brown spelled Farmar and had eight points in 12 minutes.

Ron Artest was the high scorer for the Rockets with 25 points but was ejected for the second game in a row after fouling Pau Gasol in the final minute of play. It was a hard foul as Gasol was going in for a dunk, but the officials called it a Flagrant Two. It really had no effect on the final outcome just on the final score.

Yao Ming finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds but was severely limping over the last four minutes of the game. That could have a huge effect in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Lakers were outscored in the paint 50-32, out-rebounded 58-43 and 19-10 on the offensive boards. But the Lakers, after going four-of-ten from beyond the arc in the first half finished with 11-of-20 while the Rockets, who were four-of-seven in the first half could only managed two more three-pointers in the second half.

But it was the huge discrepency in turnovers that once again led to the Rockets’ defeat. The Rockets had 17 turnovers which led to 20 Laker points. But the Lakers committed only six turnovers and gave up just three points. That was the difference in the game.

Houston will try to even the series on Sunday. Tip Off is scheduled for 3:30 Eastern and 12:30 Pacific.