khandor’s sports blog

FINAL SCORE: ROCKETS 95, Lakers 80
Complete Game Info

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From The Lakers Perspective

1. Phil Jackson, with 9 NBA Championships to his credit already, is a terrific head coach … but he was out-coached last night by Rick Adelman.

2. Anytime Andrew Bynum was not on the floor, the Lakers’ interior defense [read as Pau Gasol] could not cope with Luis Scola, or Aaron Brooks, or Carl Landry.

3. There was no legitimate reason for Andrew Bynum [-1] to have only played 19:03 last night when Pau Gasol [-15/43:03] was repeatedly being abused by the Rockets on the defensive end of the floor. 

4. Given how the Rockets have used Luis Scola, Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry at the C and PF positions, since the injury to Yao Ming, it is simply criminal that Josh Powell [DNP-Coaches Decision] has been chained to the Lakers’ bench … considering that he is the single best match-up on the Lakers’ team vs an under-sized post player.

5. Derek Fisher is a physically sturdy PG … who is simply not quick enough to cope with a player like Aaron Brooks and does not possess the type of low-post game it takes to punish the Rockets’ diminuitive PG at the offensive end of the floor.

6. Given how well Jordan Farmar [21:00] and Shannon Brown [09:12] have played in this series Derek Fisher [1-7, FGM-FGA] should not be getting 21:24 of floor time.

7. Sasha Vujacic [06:34] and Luke Walton [15:50] are two highly serviceable players who were not used effectively last night vs the Rockets’ [i] small back-court combo of Brooks & Lowry and their [ii] physical forward combo of Artest & Battier, respectively.

If the Lakers are going to advance to the Western Conference Finals and then have success against the Denver Nuggets … and eventually the Celtics, Magic or Cavaliers … Phil Jackson will need to re-think how he is using his player personnel. If he fails to do this … and, instead, stubbornly sticks with the same old same old … the Lakers will not win this year’s NBA Championship.

From The Rockets Perspective

1. At this point, Houston is playing with house money.

2. Basketball is fundamentally a game of quickness, relative to the oppenent, at the position played, and as long as the Rockets can accentuate their advantage in this aspect of the game there is every reason to believe that this team can succeed, if they make their fair share of open and contested shots.

3. Going at the Lakers last night with an interior attack focused on the Scola vs Gasol match-up was a stroke of genius by Rick Adelman. See the seminal article by Malcolm Gladwell on the way in which David must attack Goliath if he hopes to succeed, i.e. through the use of unconventional/unexpected strategies & tactics.

4. Winning Game 7, on the road, will still be a mighty chore.

5. It’s a treat to watch this collection of NBA players & coaches give their all in the face of such adversity.

6. The NBA game is based upon individual and team match-ups … and, the outcome of Game 7 in this series will depend on the answers to these two straight-forward questions:

I. Can Rick Adelman continue to out-fox the ZenMaster?

II. Which team is going to make more shots than the other?

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Far too frequently too many so-called “NBA experts/observers” try to make the game much more complicated than it actually is. 

Bombs Away! - Rockets ready to unleash another three-point barrage on Lakers
Battier’s tale isn’t unique, of course. In fact, it precisely highlights the same sort of theme which lies at the heart of Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant new feature on the art of the upset. The article argues that if David fights Goliath on the giant’s terms, Goliath will win nearly every time. But by bending the rules and defying convention, Davids everywhere can tilt the odds in their favor. It’s a reality witnessed not just in the Biblical narrative, but also on battlefields and basketball courts throughout history, as Gladwell so expertly points out.

All of which brings us to the reason behind Battier’s stroll down memory lane. Eight years after his Duke team overcame the loss of its best post player by unleashing a steady barrage of three-pointers, he finds himself in an eerily similar situation. Yao Ming is out, having been betrayed once again by a fractured foot. His absence leaves the Rockets woefully undersized; especially against a Lakers squad which boasts an embarrassment of riches when it comes to height and length up front.

Not surprisingly, Houston – having already entered its series with LA as decided underdogs – was instantly counted out the moment Yao’s injury news began circulating. Yet just like Battier’s Blue Devils, the Rockets immediately changed gears and shifted tactics, and the Lakers never knew what hit them. Featuring a starting line-up in which its tallest player was a mere 6-9, Houston dominated Game 4 by eschewing size for speed and quickness – and shooting lots and lots of threes. By changing direction midstream, the Rockets have stated their refusal to play by Goliath’s rules. They will do everything possible to fight the battle on their terms while accepting the results which follow. It’s admirable, sure. But in truth, they have no other choice.

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FINAL SCORE, Game 5: LAKERS 118, Rockets 78
Complete Game Info

If the biblical David had to win 2 of 3 match-ups vs Goliath he, too, would have been in a whole lot of trouble … just like the Houston Rockets find themselves in today, heading toward Game 6.

A seminal article, by Malcolm Gladwell, for the benefit of team sport coaches everywhere:

How David Beats Goliath
This is the second half of the insurgent’s creed. Insurgents work harder than Goliath. But their other advantage is that they will do what is “socially horrifying”—they will challenge the conventions about how battles are supposed to be fought. All the things that distinguish the ideal basketball player are acts of skill and coördination. When the game becomes about effort over ability, it becomes unrecognizable—a shocking mixture of broken plays and flailing limbs and usually competent players panicking and throwing the ball out of bounds. You have to be outside the establishment—a foreigner new to the game or a skinny kid from New York at the end of the bench—to have the audacity to play it that way. George Washington couldn’t do it. His dream, before the war, was to be a British Army officer, finely turned out in a red coat and brass buttons. He found the guerrillas who had served the American Revolution so well to be “an exceeding dirty and nasty people.” He couldn’t fight the establishment, because he was the establishment.

T. E. Lawrence, by contrast, was the farthest thing from a proper British Army officer. He did not graduate with honors from Sandhurst. He was an archeologist by trade, a dreamy poet. He wore sandals and full Bedouin dress when he went to see his military superiors. He spoke Arabic like a native, and handled a camel as if he had been riding one all his life. And David, let’s not forget, was a shepherd. He came at Goliath with a slingshot and staff because those were the tools of his trade. He didn’t know that duels with Philistines were supposed to proceed formally, with the crossing of swords. “When the lion or the bear would come and carry off a sheep from the herd, I would go out after him and strike him down and rescue it from his clutches,” David explained to Saul. He brought a shepherd’s rules to the battlefield.

The price that the outsider pays for being so heedless of custom is, of course, the disapproval of the insider.

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Outstanding stuff, right there.