It’s a blockbuster
Yao shakes off fourth-quarter collision to continue late surge
By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
May 5, 2009, 2:31AM
LOS ANGELES – For a few agonizing, heart-stopping moments, Yao Ming rocked back and forth on the floor, grimacing and holding his right knee.
The Rockets had taken the usual Lakers fourth-quarter hit and hit back harder. But then Yao crumbled to the floor, felled when Kobe Bryant’s left knee crashed into Yao’s right. All that the Rockets had built seemed to be crashing with him.
Yao, however, had been knocked down, but not out. He grew stronger, more unstoppable and so did the Rockets, until they surged through the final six minutes to stun the Lakers with a 100-92 win Monday at Staples Center in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals.
"I felt it would be gone quick," Yao said. "It was fine, nothing to worry about. When I get a hit, I knew I could come back. I just felt so sore at the moment. I had that before. I felt I just needed a minute, maybe two minutes so the soreness could go away and I could come back to play. I just felt so bad at that moment. But I knew I was fine."
Just as Yao knew that he would come back, the Rockets seemed certain that they could handle the Lakers down the stretch as they could not during the regular season.
"That’s what scared me when Yao went down," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "But I think our guys are very determined. The way they played in the last series, the way they approached these two days leading up to this game, these guys are going to play. You need people to step up in the last eight minutes of the game, the way Kobe steps up. You need somebody to step up. We had that tonight."
The Rockets led by eight when Yao went down, with Pau Gasol dunking over him to cut the lead to six. Lamar Odom put in a rebound to reduce the lead to four with 3 ½ minutes left. But while the Lakers rallied, Yao made his way back to the bench and then to the court.
When he nailed a jumper from 20 feet, he and the Rockets seemed healed. Ron Artest hit from 16 feet and Yao nailed four consecutive free throws. With a pair of Shane Battier free throws, the Rockets had their largest lead of the night, 95-84, with 1:32 remaining.
They struggled to put the game away, with the Lakers within six with 33.4 seconds remaining. But with that, Yao added two more free throws to finish with 28 points, his postseason high this season, and the Lakers had run out of time.
"We stayed with it," Artest said. "We just continued to play. They pressured us. We tried to run plays all the way through and listen to coach and we were really concerned. We said if anything, we didn’t want to lose our composure and that’s what happened."
That happened in the final minutes, but the tougher test might have been earlier in the fourth quarter when the Lakers had made the same sort of move they used to sweep the season series.
The Rockets had defended Bryant well most of the night.
Bryant, who had missed Saturday’s practice and was called a game-time decision with a sore throat, scored 32 points. But he needed 31 shots and a seven-point run in the final minutes after the Rockets had taken their 11-point lead to do it. The Rockets' defense kept the Lakers to 44.3 percent shooting, including just 2-of-18 shooting from the 3-point arc.
Yet, as well as the Rockets had defended to stay in the game, with eight minutes left, the lead that had reached nine was gone. The Lakers led by one, and the Rockets were facing the demons left from their four season losses to the Lakers.
The Lakers had led those four games by an average of one point after three quarters, and then outscored the Rockets by an average of 12 in those fourth quarters, sweeping the season series between the teams.
"Every game we played against the Lakers this year, we struggled in the fourth quarter to get some things done and we know that is a point of emphasis for us," Artest said. "We understand that’s been a point of strength for them so it’s up to us to be better in the fourth quarter.
"If we do that, we’re going to find ourselves in opportunities where the game is close like tonight. And when you’re on the road and you have a chance to win, it’s a special place to be. So we took full advantage of that opportunity in Game 1."
They did that when, with the game seemingly slipping away, Artest muscled a tough jumper through a Sasha Vujacic foul for a three-point play, starting the Rockets on a late-game offensive surge.
"A big play," Adelman said. "A big-play by Ron. He made a three-point play, hit a jumper and got fouled. From that point on, we were able to get some things happening offensively."
Yao put in a 19-footer. Aaron Brooks, who scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half and provided a jolt of offense when the Lakers made a move in the third quarter, sank a jumper and finished a drive, giving the Rockets an 85-77 lead with 5:19 remaining.
On the next possession, however, Yao crumbled to the floor and the Rockets held their breath, wondering if their chances had broken down, too.
Instead, when he rose, so did they.
Less clear was how high they could climb.
"Honestly, the first thing we said when we came into the locker room was OK, good job guys,’" Shane Battier said. "’Now, let’s get a good Game 2, too."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6407960.html
Reply With Quote
