ShareThisNow why was that so hard?
It took seven games for the Los Angeles Lakers to put away the Houston Rockets, but at least they say they've learned their lesson.
"We learned that if we play hard every night, especially on the defensive end, we're going to give ourselves a chance," forward Pau Gasol said, after the Lakers blew the Rockets off the Staples Center floor, 89-70 on Sunday.
Ah, yes. Disaster averted. All the stand-by grief counselors on alert around Southern California can turn off their cell phones.
The Lakers are moving on to the Western Conference finals against Denver.
But one more time, what was that lesson learned? And don't everyone shout out the answer at once.
"The energy has to come every night," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "There are no off-nights in the playoffs."
As it turned out, a Game 7 elimination scare was enough to draw that energy from of the Lakers, who couldn't summon it for Games 4 and 6 in Houston, and suffered a pair of head-scratching, humbling defeats.
Sunday they defended like Perry Mason, Matlock and a "Boston Legal" all-star team. Houston began the game on offense like this: air ball, turnover, shot blocked, turnover.
That was pretty much the way it went for the opening quarter, a 12-point stinker for the Rockets. They missed their first 12 shots, the majority of them contested by hyperactive Lakers.
If you want to understand how this game was won, check out Kobe Bryant's stats. He had only 14 points, made only 4 of 12 shots ... and was a huge force because he saved his best moments for the defensive end.
Bryant had seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks, and that was in a mere 33 minutes. He appeared only briefly in the fourth quarter because the Lakers were running their lead up to 31.
All possible because the Lakers aced their final.
"We were a little bit stubborn," forward Trevor Ariza said. "We thought we could beat that team on talent alone. We found out we couldn't do that. We have to play hard all the time."
Sorry, what was that again?
"We need all five guys playing hard," Bryant said.
Well, it sure sounds like they get it now.
Of course, as observers, we've learned a thing or two as well these past two weeks.
First of all, we learned the Lakers were good enough to beat undermanned Houston when they turned up the heat and played as hard as they could.
Second of all, we learned the Lakers have the attention span of preschoolers watching Shakespeare.
Do we really think the Lakers are going to bring energy every night against Denver, all five guys playing hard, especially on the defensive end?
Believe it when you see it. The Lakers also said they learned their lessons after every loss to Houston -- all three times -- then followed through only when they had to.
They learned what, again?
"That we're bi-polar," Bryant said, laughing.
Exactly. They learned they absolutely have to, need to, must play hard every night -- and, of course, they don't do it.
In the end, what the Houston series may have taught the Lakers is that they can turn it on and off, and still advance in the postseason.
Denver probably looks like a boring refresher course.
(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton@PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
