duncan228
05-17-2009, 10:27 PM
Long Sunday for Rockets fans (http://www.statesman.com/news/content/sports/stories/other/05/18/0518golden.html)
By Cedric Golden
On a lazy Sunday in the ATX, I couldn't think of any better way to spend the day than hanging out with fellow Austinites whose thirst for suds is outweighed only by their love of a good sports story.
So I rolled over to Third Base on Sixth Street to see if any locals would show up to pull the underdog Houston Rockets through in an unlikely Game 7 upset at Los Angeles.
Yep, the same Rockets who should have been roadkill after Yao Ming was shut down with a foot injury after the third game of the conference semifinals. The same Rockets who lost by 40 points to the Lakers two games ago.
I get there 10 minutes before tipoff and I'm immediately pleased. A couple of Ron Artest T-shirts are visible, along with an old school Hakeem Olajuwon jersey and several Rockets ball caps. And there's a smattering of Laker fans in those loud yellow jerseys that scream arrogance. Not exactly the turnout for the Texas-Duke game I watched here during the NCAA tournament but a nice crowd and a good, little buzz in the air.
Houston is represented even if Austin is a Spurs town. We're only an hour up the road from San Antonio, so it stands to reason that there will be more Duncan jerseys hanging out at Third Base than Yao jerseys on most weekends. But not today.
"We've gotten a lot of Spurs fans in here all season,'' says my bartender, Kindall, as I got after a hot cup of corn chowder. "But the Rockets' fans have been a lot of fun during the playoffs. They've been coming in here in a fair amount."
As I look around, it occurs to me: Houston's fans show up. Too bad their team doesn't.
The Rockets are seemingly down 8-0 before the national anthem. Smells like a blowout. The defense is awful. Chris Mihm just scored, and he doesn't even play for the Lakers anymore.
"It's early,'' says Sammy Gilford, a self-described Spurs hater who moved here from Houston in 1986. "We just need to weather this storm. We can't play the Lakers' game or we will get blown out."
The bar begins to fill up around 2:50 p.m., about like the baskets on the Lakers' end of the court. The Rockets are still scoreless four minutes into this thing and a bad miss by the offensively non-offensive Chuck Hayes produces a few audible expletives among the locals. Aaron Brooks misses again. Ron Artest shoots an airball. Houston bricks its first five three-pointers, and the only bombs finding their mark are the f-bombs from the Rockets fans sitting behind me.
Will they ever score again?
Finally, five minutes and seven seconds into the game, Brooks makes two free throws to get rid of that goose egg, but Andrew Bynum answers quickly. It's 10-2, then 17-4 and finally 22-12 at the end of the quarter, a bad sign for the Rockets, who are well aware that the team that won the first quarter in their 12 previous playoff games won all 12 games. The Lakers lead by 19 at the half and the Houston fans who insist it isn't over are into foregone delusions.
Early in the third quarter, the ABC camera crew is spotting celebrities in the stands, a sure sign this game is a laugher. There's Andy Garcia (Houston's first half was nearly as bad as "The Godfather: Part III"), David Arquette (is he waiting for "Scream 5"?), George Lopez (funniest guy in the building), and Jack Nicholson (he can't live forever).
Star power wins this series and that's no compliment to the Lakers, who should have closed the Rockets out in five. The second half is a yawner with Houston never providing these fragile Lakers a chance to choke.
"The Lakers have this laissez-faire attitude and it drives me nuts," said Jesse Longoria, who, along with his girlfriend, was targeted by trash-talking Houstonians at Third Base when his beloved Lakers were run out of the Toyota Center in Game 6. "But if we play like we can play, we should beat the Nuggets in five or six games."
Not so sure about that. It's hard to believe in a team that only plays hard in spurts. The Lakers are good at home but their next opponent — the Denver Nuggets — seem to play well everywhere. And they play hard even when they're losing.
Finally, the end comes. Los Angeles 89, Houston 70.
Not exactly the drama I had hoped to see. But the food was good.
By Cedric Golden
On a lazy Sunday in the ATX, I couldn't think of any better way to spend the day than hanging out with fellow Austinites whose thirst for suds is outweighed only by their love of a good sports story.
So I rolled over to Third Base on Sixth Street to see if any locals would show up to pull the underdog Houston Rockets through in an unlikely Game 7 upset at Los Angeles.
Yep, the same Rockets who should have been roadkill after Yao Ming was shut down with a foot injury after the third game of the conference semifinals. The same Rockets who lost by 40 points to the Lakers two games ago.
I get there 10 minutes before tipoff and I'm immediately pleased. A couple of Ron Artest T-shirts are visible, along with an old school Hakeem Olajuwon jersey and several Rockets ball caps. And there's a smattering of Laker fans in those loud yellow jerseys that scream arrogance. Not exactly the turnout for the Texas-Duke game I watched here during the NCAA tournament but a nice crowd and a good, little buzz in the air.
Houston is represented even if Austin is a Spurs town. We're only an hour up the road from San Antonio, so it stands to reason that there will be more Duncan jerseys hanging out at Third Base than Yao jerseys on most weekends. But not today.
"We've gotten a lot of Spurs fans in here all season,'' says my bartender, Kindall, as I got after a hot cup of corn chowder. "But the Rockets' fans have been a lot of fun during the playoffs. They've been coming in here in a fair amount."
As I look around, it occurs to me: Houston's fans show up. Too bad their team doesn't.
The Rockets are seemingly down 8-0 before the national anthem. Smells like a blowout. The defense is awful. Chris Mihm just scored, and he doesn't even play for the Lakers anymore.
"It's early,'' says Sammy Gilford, a self-described Spurs hater who moved here from Houston in 1986. "We just need to weather this storm. We can't play the Lakers' game or we will get blown out."
The bar begins to fill up around 2:50 p.m., about like the baskets on the Lakers' end of the court. The Rockets are still scoreless four minutes into this thing and a bad miss by the offensively non-offensive Chuck Hayes produces a few audible expletives among the locals. Aaron Brooks misses again. Ron Artest shoots an airball. Houston bricks its first five three-pointers, and the only bombs finding their mark are the f-bombs from the Rockets fans sitting behind me.
Will they ever score again?
Finally, five minutes and seven seconds into the game, Brooks makes two free throws to get rid of that goose egg, but Andrew Bynum answers quickly. It's 10-2, then 17-4 and finally 22-12 at the end of the quarter, a bad sign for the Rockets, who are well aware that the team that won the first quarter in their 12 previous playoff games won all 12 games. The Lakers lead by 19 at the half and the Houston fans who insist it isn't over are into foregone delusions.
Early in the third quarter, the ABC camera crew is spotting celebrities in the stands, a sure sign this game is a laugher. There's Andy Garcia (Houston's first half was nearly as bad as "The Godfather: Part III"), David Arquette (is he waiting for "Scream 5"?), George Lopez (funniest guy in the building), and Jack Nicholson (he can't live forever).
Star power wins this series and that's no compliment to the Lakers, who should have closed the Rockets out in five. The second half is a yawner with Houston never providing these fragile Lakers a chance to choke.
"The Lakers have this laissez-faire attitude and it drives me nuts," said Jesse Longoria, who, along with his girlfriend, was targeted by trash-talking Houstonians at Third Base when his beloved Lakers were run out of the Toyota Center in Game 6. "But if we play like we can play, we should beat the Nuggets in five or six games."
Not so sure about that. It's hard to believe in a team that only plays hard in spurts. The Lakers are good at home but their next opponent — the Denver Nuggets — seem to play well everywhere. And they play hard even when they're losing.
Finally, the end comes. Los Angeles 89, Houston 70.
Not exactly the drama I had hoped to see. But the food was good.