Game Rewind: A Second Helping of Overtime – Lakers 103, Rockets 102

More overtime?  Sure, I’ll have another helping, thank you so much.  As fun as these games have been to watch, I’m sure the Lakers aren’t as happy to play OT on consecutive nights as I was to watch them play those OTs.  Then again, they did win both games, so there can’t be too much complaining.

It’s just another overtime game, Andrew, quit your whining.

The Lakers at least made positive strides in this game by cleaning up their turnover issues, committing just nine turnovers, however the offense didn’t exactly have an easy time.  Really without Kobe Bryant tossing in 41 points and Andrew Bynum going for 17 and 17, the Lakers had little else going well.  Fortunately, neither did the Rockets, especially a certain Mr. Trevor Ariza.

The former Laker swingman, as predicted, came out early trying to show the Lakers what a big mistake they made in letting him go.  He took it upon himself to be Houston’s go-to guy in the game and it was a good thing he did, otherwise Houston might have actually won this contest.  So intent on one-upping Ron Artest was Ariza that he even started mixing it up with Ron-Ron practically from the start.  Yes, he actually thought he could out-crazy the craziest dude in the league.  Artest had Ariza completely bottled up offensively, but Ariza just kept on firing up bricks just to make his point.  And boy was his point made, especially when he got the ball ripped out of his hands by Derek Fisher on the final play of the game, securing the Laker victory.  Point made, loud and clear.

Round 1 goes to the Ron Artest and the Lakers.

• You just can’t keep Derek Fisher down.  Fish pretty much had a terrible night, going scoreless, rebound-less and assist-less.  Yet there he was with the game on the line making the biggest play of the night.
• Don’t forget the other part of the Ariza-Artest equation.  Artest was as good as Ariza was bad.  Ron shot the ball well once again and even came up huge with the big three-pointer in the final minute of regulation.
• Ho hum, a 41-point game for Kobe Bryant.  Really, how good are you when you got for 40+ and you aren’t even close to the biggest story of the game?

Lake Show Outtakes:

• One good week to start the year and Andrew Bynum thinks he can start acting like a prima donna?  You better check yourself Drew.  I think it is safe to say that Phil Jackson knows what he is doing, so if he pulls you from a game for any reason you better shut your mouth and sit politely on the bench.
• Maybe the Laker bench bums will play better after seeing Rocket reserve Carl Landry have such a stellar night off the bench.  To be fair though the Laker reserves weren’t horrid tonight.  Josh Powell actually was decent and Jordan Farmar did an OK job as well.  Still, it isn’t like anyone is providing a spark from the second unit.

Tags: Andrew Bynum, bench mob, Carl Landry, Derek Fisher, Game Rewind, Houston Rockets, Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell, Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza