Los Angeles Lakers v. Houston Rockets

The Lakers (33-15) face the Houston Rockets (22-27) tonight at home in the Staples Center. The Lakers are coming off a disappointing loss to the Celtics, and the Rockets are currently in last place in their division trailing well behind the Spurs and Mavericks. The Lakers lost to the Rockets on Dec. 1st, 109-99 but they beat them Oct. 26th in Houston 112-110. This match will be the last time they face this season, and the Lakers hope to win at home where they are 18-7 this year, which matches their home losses for the entire 2009-2010 season.



UPDATE

The Lakers now (34-15) beat the Houston Rockets tonight by a final score of 114-106. But that didn't come easy as it had to go into overtime to do it. The Lakers finally bounced back after losing two straight home games in the past week.

Pau Gasol getting between two defenders for the slam dunk.

 

Kobe Bryant had a team high 32 points and Pau Gasol had 26 points with 16 rebounds, resulting in an impressive double double for the night. The game was close throughout the night with the Lakers holding a small lead for most of it. The Rockets tied up the game with only seconds left and Lamar Odom (20 points) gave an ugly attempt of a shot to win it for them. He was in of course because the ever injury-prone Andrew Bynum was out with bruised knees. ( I still think the Lakers need to trade him while they can still get some good value for him because he is always injured). But the good news is that Ron Artest and Derek Fisher looked like their old selves again hitting open jumpers against the Rockets defense who was missing many players, including all-star center Yao Ming.

Lamar Odom taking it to the hole.

The Lakers have to beat these scrappy teams in order to better their record since they haven't been able to put the big teams away this year. They face a visiting San Antonio Spurs team this Thursday who has been playing very well this season to say the least.