Rockets v. Lakers (Game 2): F is for Flagrant

I didn’t have a good feeling about this game.  In my mind it was “do-or-die” for the Lakers, and the thought of that had me convinced that this was going to be an embarrassing shellacking of the Rockets.  The first quarter did little to dispel the pit in my stomach.  With the Lakers Kobe Bryant firing on all cylinders things didn’t look good.

Lo and behold the game was tied up by the end of the half.  How?  I have no idea.

Then the shit hit the fan:

What didn’t happen in this game?

• Lamar Odom was chatting up Luis Scola all night long.  Finally culminating in Luke Walton stepping in and everyone getting broken up by the referees.  What are you talking shit to Scola about, Odom?  Was his playoff beard scratching you every time you went for a rebound?  Scola wasn’t even talking back.  It just goes to show you the kind of gentleman that play for our fine city.
• An Odom technical and double technical on Walton later, on what should have been the last possession for the Rockets, Derek Fischer decided to get all Dhalsim on Scola sending the Argentine to the floor with a wicked forearm, head-butt combination.  Fish gets hit with a Flagrant Type 2 and the Rockets are in business.  This should have been the turning point of the game.
• Sasha Vujacic, the Machine, is the best at double-dribbling!!  Best play of the game!  Does this happen anymore?  I thought that they had eliminated the travel, carry and mid-range jumper from the NBA.
• Von Wafer heads for the tunnel.  Craig Sager desperately tries to get the scoop.  There’s no scoop.  Everybody’s tight-lipped.  What happened?  Where did everyone’s favorite mohawked assasin go?  Why did Adelman kick him off the bench?
• As Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant fight for a rebound under the Rockets basket, Artest stumbles backwards as the whistle blows.  Foul on Artest.  Ron-ron loses it.  He’s sprinting around the floor, yelling, throwing make believe elbows in the air.  The referees are having none of it.  Turns out they don’t reverse their calls.  So, instead of continuing to argue with the zebras Ron, being the level-headed gentleman that he is, approaches Kobe to ask him to come clean about hitting him in the larynx.  Kobe denies, Ron continues, Referees throw out Artest.
• Kobe, who had been egging on Shane Battier all night, makes a sweet shot in the Duke grad’s face three possessions after Artest’s ejection.  Being the subtle man we all know him to be, he batters Batties with “you can’t gaurd me.”  Kobe gets a technical foul for taunting.  If the ref’s are going to call this, shouldn’t they just preemptively tee-up the Black Mamba before the game starts?  You know he’s going to be a pompous dick-head at some point during the game.  Get it out of the way early.

The Derek Fischer ejection should have been the turning point in the game… the rallying cry for the Rockets, if you will.  They kept their deficit to single digits going into the fourth quarter, and we learned in the second quarter they could erase that kind of lead with no problem.  But, tempers flared and things got out of hand and Ronny couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

In the end I will take getting one game in LA before the series comes back to Houston.  I didn’t think it would be done.  It was enough for me last night being able to sit there and think, “man, they’ve got a chance to sweep the Lakers on their home court.”