Bryant, Lakers reign once more, 2009 NBA CHAMPIONS !!!

For Kobe and Lakers, it's all about getting the early jump

On Thursday, the Lakers sulked to the locker room down 16 to the Rockets at halftime, and Kobe Bryant didn't wait to exit the court before he began lighting into Sasha Vujacic.

While Bryant's frustration was boiling over, he was doing anything he could to ignite his despondent team. During a first-quarter timeout, Bryant ruffled Pau Gasol's shaggy hair and followed up the bobblehead move with a fist to Gasol's chest as if to say, "Wake up big fella, we need you."

At halftime, he continued. When Lakers coach Phil Jackson was asked if it was the angriest he had seen Bryant "in a while," Jackson confirmed with a matter-of-fact, "Yes."

"Kobe was vocal," Jordan Farmar said on Friday after Bryant and the rest of the Lakers starters, plus Lamar Odom, were conspicuously silent and all left the team's practice facility following a film session and voluntary shootaround without speaking to the media.

"[He was] a little frustrated, a little disappointed," Farmar said after describing the locker room atmosphere as fired up. "He's a competitor and he wants to win and he wants to advance and try to put another trophy up in [Mitch Kupchak's office] so he was the one speaking more than anybody. We all got the message and I thought we responded, we just can't start like that to put ourselves in that hole to begin with."

For the second time in three games, Los Angeles was caught off guard by Houston's early surge and was left scrambling to get back in the game.

In Game 4, Houston rallied around the absence of Yao Ming and ran out to a 29-point lead before winning by 12 in what's being referred to on L.A. sports talk radio as the "Mother's Day Massacre."

The Lakers seemed to have learned their lesson in Game 5, jumping out to a 25-point lead en route to a 40-point win. If the Rockets' spirit wasn't broken when Yao went out, it surely was extinguished by now, L.A. thought.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

After Bryant's diatribe in the locker room, L.A. came out with a renewed sense of focus and started the third quarter with a 16-2 run to draw within two and make up for the 17-1 hole it dug for itself in the first quarter.

"I huddle with my coaching staff prior to coming in with the players and talking to the players," Jackson said. "Usually we go over some of the things that have happened at the end of the second quarter, halftime, a direction we feel that we got to bring a message to and they have three-four minutes there in the locker room before everything gets sorted out and we get back to work so if in those three or four minutes an inspirational talk is given by one of the captains, Kobe or Fisher, it's welcome."

The question remains for Sunday's Game 7 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) whether Jackson isn't going to just welcome a halftime speech, but ask one of his players to create that "fired up" intensity by speaking to the team prior to tip-off.

Bryant's explosion was more out of desperation than premeditation. He reacted to the deficit his team was facing. L.A. hopes to have the energy from the start on Sunday.

"Excluding the first game of the [Houston series] we've played very well on our home court," Jackson said. "We feel very well about our ability to come out and play with the kind of energy on our court that we've maintained over the year and during this Playoffs."

Jackson is right when you go by the numbers. The Lakers are 41-6 at Staples Center in the regular season and postseason this year. In the history of Game 7s in the Playoffs, the home team has won 81 of 101. Jackson has been there before too, taking Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals by 29 at home over New York in '92 after losing Game 6 on the road by 14; winning Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals in his last season in Chicago after losing Game 6 on the road in Indiana; and bouncing back from a 10-point loss in Portland in Game 6 of the West finals in '00 only to win Game 7 back at home -- a game that was made into a "Where Amazing Happens" commercial spot a couple of weeks ago.

There is virtue in a team keeping an even keel and never getting too up or too down, but it all seems a little too nonchalant, doesn't it?

The Lakers are playing a team that's putting everything out there on the table and loving every second of it. L.A. is holding onto its "act like you've been there before" card and hoping it can still win the hand.

"It's about first quarters," said Vujacic. In 10 of the Lakers' 11 games this postseason, the team leading after one went on to win the game. "The way they started the first quarters and how they feel that they're playing good and their confidence is at such a high level, we just got to take that away from them. We got to deliver the first punch."

But, if the Lakers knew the first-quarter problem after Game 1 and couldn't correct it, and after Game 4 and didn't do anything about it, what makes them think they can get it right after Game 6?

"I don't know," Vujacic said. "If I did, I would be Nostradamus I would know every answer that you guys are throwing at me but I really don't know what's wrong and what happens in that first quarter. I know that we're going to have our crowd behind us. I know we're playing a home court Game 7 and we just have to play smart and play team basketball and we have nothing to fear."

Nothing to fear but speaking up too late, like Bryant did on Thursday and silencing any chatter about a championship in the city of Los Angeles, that is.

Article by - Dave McMenamin, NBA.com

The Current Playoff is in Conference Semi-Finals stage -

La Lakers 3 - 3 Houston Rockets | Series Tied | 7th Match Today

Denver Nuggets 4 - 1 Dallas Mavericks | Series won by Denver | Denver proceeds to Western Conference Finals

Atlanta Hawks 1 - 4 Cleveland Cavaliers | Series won by Cleveland | Cleveland proceeds to Eastern Conference Finals

Boston Celtic 3 - 3 Orlando Magic | Series Tied | 7th Match Today

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xXx's Signature:

Saw the match Lakers vs Rockets today. Whatever happened to these young rockets they looked like a bunch of fools lost in the final match

Anyway Lakers won

Orlando and Boston, I didn't see the match, but checked the scores

Boston were close until the 3rd Quarter then Orlando blew them away

But give it to those young rockets

Awesome playoffs this time

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Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true

Yup...Rockets gave a very tough fight to Lakers who are very strong team this season

The young guns were firing today for Rockets, in the absence of Yao Ming especially the Brooks Alley Oop

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xXx's Signature:

^ They weren't firing. Did you notice even Aaron wasn't playing well today

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Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true

Yao Ming went injured too

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xXx's Signature:

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xXx's Signature:

Lakers vs. Nuggets | Western Conference Finals Preview



Eight down, eight to go for the purple and gold.

While the Rockets surely gave L.A. all it wanted in a tough 7-game series that concluded with Sunday's 19-point Game 7 win, Kobe Bryant's team may have discovered something about itself in the process: The Lakers can play some seriously suffocating defense when properly inspired.

That's precisely what they did in Games 5 and 7 at home, and the second half of Game 6 on the road, sparked by the presence of 7-footers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol on the interior and some highly-active perimeter defense led by Bryant.

"Our effort could be much better in Game 4 and Game 6, but still, Houston played extremely well," said Bryant. "(But) in Game 6 at halftime we made a decision to get more aggressive - to get up in passing lanes - and we just turned it up another notch. After that game we understood that there was another level still that we could go to defensively."

Playing that way defensively will be necessary against a Nuggets' team that boasts a good deal of offensive firepower, led by Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and sub J.R. Smith. Though Denver lacks a classic low post scorer, it has played much better defensively than at any other point of Anthony's career. The question is how the Rocky Mountain dwellers will fare against a Lakers team that's far more talented than a beat up New Orleans squad (4-1 Denver) or a Dallas team with an injured Josh Howard that still battled quite well (remember the Game 3 non call?). Surely the Lakers are at another level.

Perhaps the key to the series, however, is Andrew Bynum, who creates matchup problems for a Nuggets' front court that goes 6-11 at center (Nene) and 6-9 at power forward (Kenyon Martin). It's no coincidence that Denver won its only game of the regular season series when Bynum was hurt, since Nene moved over to Gasol while Martin tended to Lamar Odom, better physical matchups for both. Furthermore, the Nuggets didn't have to contend with a low post scorer in the First Round (Tyson Chandler can't score) or Dallas (Erick Dampier, not so much), and will have to make an immediate adjustment with L.A.'s twin towers.

Still, that the Lakers swept Denver in last season's first round and have won 9-of-10 games shouldn't be measured too heavily, since it's a far different group of Nuggets.

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Game 1 in progress.

First quarter was very good for the nuggets. They scored a 13 point lead over the lakers going into the break. Lakers came back stronger in the 2nd half(give credit to their bench strength).

The base line shots from nuggets have been pathetic so far They missed nearly 5-6 shots . Their best player until now has been Anthony and Nene with a lot of slam dunks

Kobe Bryant has brought them back in the 2nd round. Derek Fisher scores a 3point shot with just a few milliseconds before going into the break

After the first half
Denver 54
Lakers 55

Come on Denver, smash the lakers

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Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true

4th quarter in progress at the moment, Nuggets are back in the game
They lead by 5 points... smith is scoring his 3 point shots and really super cool defense by the nuggets. Kobe is irritated

87-82 Denver leads

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Agnel's Signature:

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true