After the embarrassing loss the Los Angeles Lakers had in Game Four of their Western Conference Semi-final match-up against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers won convincingly in Game 5, 118-78.
The Lakers completely dominated the Rockets the way they were predicted to do after the Rockets lost Yao Ming-- the Lakers played aggressive defense for the first three where they built their 40-point lead. They held the Rockets to 32% shooting and had a distinct edge in team blocks and steals. Kobe Bryant only played three quarters en route to 26 points and Pau Gasol had another double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
What went right for the Lakers? Apart from effectively challenging the Houston Rockets on the offensive end, the Lakers played at a pace that has favored them since the beginning of the season. The Lakers scored at least 24 points in a quarter and shot the ball very well. The Lakers' "bench mob" also made a complete turnaround with Jordan Farmar and Luke Walton giving quality contributions on both ends of the court. Finally, Andrew Bynum came up very big in the first half where he abused Carl Landry and Luis Scola in the paint. (I guess Andrew finally realized that he had a massive size advantage against the Rockets' frontline).
The Lakers finally played brilliantly in Game Five and crushed their opponent the way a team that won 65 games in the regular season should. Now the ultimate question comes up: Which version of the Lakers team will show up in Game Six in Houston? The sharp team of Game Five or the apathetic version in Game Four?
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Of course being a big Laker fan, I am happy for having a win. However, hard to applaud them for this game because 1.) They didn't have any competition and 2.) They showed they could have simply stepped it up in the second half of game four to win the game. Them winning the series is not unexpected. I am just tired of them deciding when they want to come play and not. Win the games, get the series over, bring the trophy back to LA.
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