Lakers-Rockets: Lakers Still Untested

After playing four games, this game was supposed to be the big test for the Lakers. I think they passed, don't you?

The Lakers came out in the first quarter and played flat-out terrible. I'm telling you Kenny, it was just terrible.

They played like a team that only played one game in the past week. Oh wait a minute, they did only play one game in the past week. So I'll excuse them for the turnovers, poor defense and sloppy play, especially when they played the last three quarters so efficiently.  

They outscored the Rockets 34-20 in the second quarter to put them up two points at halftime. Something changed and that something was the bench mob. They emerged from the pine and completely out-hustled their counterparts.

Also, allowing Pau Gasol to play with the bench was not a bad move either. Pau Gasol dominated the boards at 15 rebounds while scoring a more than decent 20 points. When your team is as deep as the Lakers, you can afford to experiment a little if you're Phil Jackson.

Lakers are also learning that Defense wins games as they held their last five opponents ,including the Rockets, to an average of 85 points-per-game; currently the best in the league. They are doing this while scoring 106 points-per-game on the offensive end.

Granted, it's still extremely in early in the season to say that the Lakers have the best offense and defense in the league, but it will be interesting to see if they can keep the intensity up for the remainder of the season.

The Rockets so called "Big Three", which is Ron Artest, Tracy McGrady, and Yao Ming were held to 9-33 from the field at a mislay 28%. When your top three guys can't get it going, your chances of winning go down tremendously. 

One more thing to note on the Lakers end is that they are all around balanced.

Kobe doesn't need to score a lot of points in order for the Lakers to win, but it's nice to know that he can if they need him to. He had a game-high of 23 points while Jordan Farmar led the bench with 16 points.

Trevor Ariza and Sasha Vujacic were also key factors on the defensive end. Vujacic only took three shots and made all three, two of which were three-pointers and one very sweet floater down the middle. But he has to be given some credit for his defense tonight. Him and Ariza played great defense on McGrady and helped keep him in check.

A true test for the Lakers? I don't know, I think the Lakers have yet to be really tested this season.

Lets see if New Orleans and Dallas can shake things up a bit.