Houston Roundball Review Archive: January 2007 Rockets' Team Effort Routs Lakers by 25

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

HOUSTON, TX (Toyota Center) -- So much for the Tracy McGrady versus Kobe Bryant show Wednesday night at Toyota Center.

The Houston Rockets raced past the Los Angeles Lakers in the second half to rout LA 102 to 77 before a sold out crowd of 18,331 fans.

Surprisingly, the Rockets defeated the Lakers despite a poor shooting performance by McGrady.

T-Mac scored eight points and shot just 4 for 16 from the field; however, he did dish out a game-high 12 assists.

Bryant finished the game with 20 points on 6 for 18 shooting.

He did not finish the ball game due to a strained groin.

Juwan Howard scored a game-high 23 points (10 for 20 from the field). Howard also pulled down 11 rebounds.

Rafer Alston chipped in 20 points (8 for 19, 4 for 9 on threes); five rebounds; and four assists.

However, the star of the game for the Rockets was the "young fella" -- Dikembe Mutombo.

Mutombo grabbed a game-high 19 rebounds; blocked five shots; and, even added seven points including a baseline 10-foot shot.

Deke surprassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3,189) for second place on the NBA's all-time blocked shot list with his fourth blocked shot of the game.

The sell-out crowd gave Deke a standing ovation to acknowledge his feat.

Mutombo now trails just one player -- Hakeem Olajuwon on the list. Dream blocked 3,830 shots in his spectacular NBA career.

In a surprise to me the Lakers began the game with Bryant defending McGrady; however, the move backfired when Bryant was called for his second foul (an offensive foul) early in the first period.

Despite Bryant's sitting on the bench, the Rockets only led the Lakers 24 to 22 at the end of the first quarter.

Bryant started the second quarter and finished the period with 10 points to help the Lakers win the period 24 to 23.

Houston led 47 to 46 at halftime.

Jeff Van Gundy: "...found a better energy..." in the second half..."

The Rockets erupted in the third quarter and outscored the Lakers 25 to 12 to take a 72 to 58 lead into the fourth period.

Alston scored nine points in the third period followed by seven from Juwan Howard.

Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, was ejected with 15.3 seconds left in the third period.

It's good for Phil he left the game early because the Rockets continued to pour it on the Lakers in the fourth period.

Chuck Hayes began the Rockets' fourth quarter scoring with a reverse lay-up; then, Juwan Howard scored two straight lay-ups and knocked down a 19-foot jump shot to increase the Rockets to 80 to 60 with 8:34 left in the ball game.

Houston kept the pedal to the medal and the emphatic hammer of the ball game was slammed home (literally) when Luther Head threw down a vicious slam dunk at the 3:53 mark (over Lakers big man Rony Turiaf) to give the Rockets a 90 to 66 lead.

Head drained a three-point jumper to push the Rockets over the century mark with 9.1 seconds remaining for the final score.

The Lakers' 77 points tonight were their lowest point total of the season.

The previous low of 82 occurred versus Chicago on November 19, 2006.

The Lakers also set season lows in field goals made (26), field goal percentage (.342) and assists (14, tied).

After the game, Lakers forward Vladimir Radmonivic summed up the Rockets' victory this way: "There was nothing positive about the game. We got our ass kicked and that is all there is to say."

Tracy McGrady: "...we believe..."

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