Houston Rockets Basketball Team

HOUSTON -- It took the team with the NBA's best record to end the Houston Rockets' 22-game winning streak. Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics stopped the remarkable run emphatically Tuesday night, pulling away in the second half for a 94-74 victory. The Rockets hadn't lost since Jan. 27 and put together the NBA's second-longest winning streak. It ended 11 victories shy of the 1971-72 Lakers, who won 33 in a row.

Just for old times' sake, the Houston Rockets, or as they're known in Lakerdom, the Grinches who almost stole last season, won this season's first trip here. Of course, there's a limit to how many times the Lakers can let down against the same team . . . even if the number was getting up there, and they had to fight the Rockets to the wire to win, 88-79, Tuesday night in a defensive struggle, or the NBA version of mud wrestling. Gritty as the Rockets are, starting the night 20-14 without Yao Ming, they couldn't have hit the ocean from a boat in the first half when they shot 36%, and finished four for 23 on three-point attempts overall.

Mister Mean means business. He has one mission in life. He tracks down rebounds. Mr. Mean goes after a basketball the way a Patriot missile goes after a Scud. He senses it. He sights it. He nails it. Nothing deters Mr. Mean. He is one mean Houston Rocket. His real name is Larry Smith, but there's a lot of that going around. While the nickname sounds like something that belongs in Wrestlemania, it works. This way, this Larry Smith won't be mistaken for any other Larry Smith out there.

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming's broken left foot could be a "career-threatening" injury. Dr. Tom Clanton, the Rockets' team physician, told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that Yao's injury "has the potential for him missing this next season and could be career-threatening." Yahoo Sports first reported that the Rockets and Yao's representatives were concerned the 7-foot-6 All-Star would never play again.

He was too good to be true. Akeem Olajuwon was innocent as a fawn, gifted as a god. In a world of head cases, he was pleasant and easygoing. He would have been the All-American boy except he was from Nigeria. Not to worry. In the years that passed, he got Americanized. He became rich and famous, not to mention notorious. He was paid millions of dollars and blamed for many Houston Rocket disappointments that weren't his fault.

There will be no immediate rematch. As expected, Laker center Shaquille O'Neal and Houston Rocket forward Charles Barkley were hit with fines and one-game suspensions by the NBA--which means both will sit out tonight's Laker-Rocket contest at Staples Center--a day after their brief but dramatic rumble Wednesday night at Houston.

As if things weren't bad enough for the Lakers, they added injury to insult. Forward Lamar Odom sat in the locker room with two electro-stim pads attached to his lower back as he slowly, almost achingly, pulled on his clothes, as good a metaphor as any after the Lakers' 99-87 loss Sunday to Houston in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.

What, them worry? What was the big deal if the Rockets were down, 2-0 . . . and Scottie Pippen was being referred to in the hometown press as the Phantom Menace . . . and Hakeem Olajuwon was playing a few minutes here and there between fouls . . . and Coach Rudy Tomjanovich was so desperate, he put Charles Barkley on Shaquille O'Neal, gambling that O'Neal wouldn't step on him?

Antoine Carr has been chasing an NBA championship ring for 14 seasons. He signed as a free agent with the Rockets after reaching the finals the previous two seasons with the Utah Jazz because he thought Houston's nucleus was better equipped to win a title. But after the Rockets dropped the opening two games against the Lakers in their best-of-five playoff series, Carr is questioning the character of his team.

Free-agent guard Eric Piatkowski, the Clippers' leader in games played since their move to Los Angeles two decades ago, agreed to a three-year contract with the Houston Rockets for approximately $8.5 million early Friday evening. "Eric has always enjoyed playing for the Clippers," his agent, Jeff Austin, said from his Virginia office. "He feels he had a great relationship with the team. Other people said it was an unhappy experience, but he feels it was a happy one.

Scores GAME 1: Rockets 100, at Lakers 92 GAME 2: at Lakers 111, Rockets 98 GAME 3: Lakers 108, at Rockets 94 GAME 4: at Rockets 99, Lakers 87 GAME 5: at Lakers 118, Rockets 78 GAME 6: at Rockets 95, Lakers 80 GAME 7: at Lakers 89, Rockets 70 Ebb and flow This series never lacked story lines. Houston's Game 1 victory in Los Angeles again raised questions about the Lakers' commitment to playing hard every game and to the team's toughness, an issue in last year's NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics.

Thanks for coming, Rocket men. Happy days aren't necessarily here again in Lakerdom, although local fans are definitely relieved to learn there will be more days. Overwhelming Houston without Yao Ming in Staples Center, as the Lakers did Sunday, spares them the biggest embarrassment/learning experience of all, going down as the patsies in the biggest upset in NBA history. Of course, one win doesn't mean they're back.

Andrew Bynum was relieved. It was time to move on to another playoff series, one in which he would make a bigger impact if the Lakers and their center get their wish. If timing is everything, Bynum was solid Sunday against the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. He was pretty much a human pendulum against Houston, swinging back and forth between scoreless games, of which he logged three, and productive efforts. In Game 7, he had 14 points on six-for-seven shooting.

Conflicted feelings pervaded the Rockets' locker room after their 89-70 loss to the Lakers in Game 7 that ended Houston's adversity-laced run. "There's no reason why we shouldn't have advanced," said dejected Rockets guard Ron Artest, who scored only seven points on three-for-10 shooting. "There's no reason why I shouldn't have done better." Walk a few steps away from Artest's locker, and forward Shane Battier will share why the Rockets should feel good about themselves.

Well, it was the least they could do. Having dragged this town kicking and screaming into an unwanted game of chicken Sunday, the Lakers at least had the decency to make it fun. Pau Gasol played with Ker-Pau cartoon strength. Kobe Bryant played with M-V-P defensive fervor. Sasha Vujacic actually made a jumper. Derek Fisher actually had a steal. Andrew Bynum actually showed a pulse. They sprinted. They scratched. They swarmed. They learned? They have no idea.

Andrew Bynum's breakthrough lasted one game. The Lakers' center did not score in 19 minutes of the Lakers' 95-80 loss Thursday to the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals. He missed all three of his shots, had three fouls and seven rebounds. "I did the same things," Bynum said. "I got offensive rebounds. Last game I made the put-backs. This game I didn't make my put-backs. I played the exact same way."

If the Houston Rockets were in a mood to do the Lakers any favors (which they're not) . . . If the Lakers weren't locked into a pinching salary-cap position and could put together an attractive enough trade proposal to coax Houston into meeting Scottie Pippen's desire to be traded to L.A. (so far they haven't been able to) . . . If Pippen could fill the Lakers' first and most aching need, power forward (he wouldn't) . . .

The Houston Rockets, having spent most of the offseason pursuing Charles Barkley and the last season and a half searching for a dependable power forward, got both Sunday when they made a four-for-one trade with the Phoenix Suns that will be officially announced today. In return, the Suns get Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Chucky Brown, Mark Bryant and the chance to end what had become a public feud with Barkley before it dragged into 1996-97.

Forget the fact the Lakers have home-court advantage in Game 7, this one was strictly pass-fail. If they couldn't put away what remained of the Houston Rockets in Game 6 before 18,501 frenzied fans in red "Beat L.A." T-shirts in the Toyota Center, or 18,501 Texas National Guard troops in full combat gear, the Lakers weren't the great-going-on-awesome team people thought they were when the playoffs started. This just in . . . Oops! I guess we can put Thursday night's 95-80 loss to the Rockets in the failure column.

Staff writer Mike Bresnahan ties up some loose ends on days of Lakers playoff games. Five things If the Lakers had actually won this series in five games, here are five things I could be doing tonight in L.A. instead of being stuck in Houston for Game 6. 1. Continue to beat myself up for taking Greg Oden in the fourth round of my fantasy basketball draft last October. 2. Catch up on all the details of last month's spring football game at the University of Wisconsin. 3.