FROM HOUSTON — The way this is going I'm going to have to ask the question again, although I already know the answer: THIS IS EMBARRASSING.
Only the underachieving, disappointing Lakers could make Luis Scola look like Larry Bird. The guy goes into the Hall of Fame if he gets to play against Pau Gasol more often.
Yo, Trevor Ariza, they've started the game.
Maybe he thinks the Rockets need a handicap, like I'll give you two strokes a side -- the last two games Ariza turning the ball back over to Houston at the start to even things out.
The Rockets don't have two of their best players, and yet it's Phil Jackson who can't get the best team in the West cranked up to advance to the next round.
Defense has been a consistent Lakers' deficiency and yet the guy with the nine rings doesn't appear as if he's noticed.
Seven games against the Rockets?
Oh, that's right, the Lakers came here a few days ago and won back the home-court advantage, so mission accomplished in Houston. I guess his players got the message, "as long as we have the home-court advantage, we're all right."
NBA champions? Are you kidding me?
Maybe Andrew Bynum shows up for the NBA Finals after buying a ticket.
The first half just ended, the team that lost the last game by 40 now up by 16, Bynum contributing zero points in 11 minutes and 20 seconds. He goes on to play a total of 19 minutes and scores as many as Yao Ming.
Have I mentioned Derek Fisher? Why bother?
No one has ever said Lamar Odom has what it takes to carry the Lakers on his back, and sore as it is now, he's certainly not about to start. One shot and one miss in more than 14 minutes, though, is a back-breaker.
OK, so these are the Lakers, and those are the Rockets -- so you just know the Lakers will come back, right?
NBA Commissioner David Stern is here, as good a reminder as the referees need that this season is supposed to end with Kobe and LeBron matched against each other.
But even the officials are off to a slow start. They tag Kobe with a phantom technical foul, and while Jeff Van Gundy goes crazy on TV talking about the point it cost the Lakers, if these guys are championship worthy -- referees included -- they all come back in the second half to make things right.
The Lakers begin the third quarter on a 16-2 run, because suddenly they care. I wonder if you do, too, or if you're just waiting for Sunday -- apparently like Jackson.
