Lakers face their fourth straight loss at the hands of Houston Rockets 109-99
The Lakers scored 99 and the Rockets topped them with 109 points as they secured their sixth victory and gave the Lakers their fourth straight loss that they most feared.
Arena stats
The game was watched at the Toyota Center, Houston, TX where 18,116 basketball fans enjoyed the game for a little more than two hours.
Game stats
The Lakers grabbed 40 rebounds and the Rockets had 37. The Lakers took 12 offensive rebounds and the Rockets had eight. The Lakers gave away 11 turnovers and the Houston Rockets had 13. The Lakers had 14 fast break points and the Rockets had 17. The Lakers
took the biggest lead with 12 and the Rockets with 10. Both the teams had 42 points in the paint.
Scoring
Matt Barnes had a technical foul for the Lakers and Luis Scola committed one for the Rockets too.
The lead changed 14 times and the game was tied 10 times during the whole game.
Box score
Los Angeles Lakers
Kobe Bryant had a team high 27 points, Lamar Odom had 25 and Matt Barnes scored 14 points for the Lakers. They grabbed four team rebounds.
Kevin Martin had 22 points, Shane Battier scored 17 and Luis Scola scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Houston Rockets. They grabbed eight team rebounds.
Battier plays better
It was Battier’s 11 points that he made during the final three minutes of the game that lifted the Houston Rockets to a 109-99 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.
Kevin Martin speeded up Houston’s pace of the game after halftime as he scored 20 of his 22 points in the third and fourth quarters. Battier had his 17 points on 5 for 7 shooting for the Houston Rockets.
"The last five minutes [of the game] was our five minutes". Rick Adelman, Rockets coach said proudly.
The Lakers shot 22.7 percent, 5 for 22 in the fourth quarter and Odom and Pau Gasol could not score anything.
The game was not in the direction of the Rockets from the start. Even when the game was in the last three minutes the Rockets were trailing 97-94. Battier came forward and started off on a back to back 3 pointers right from the corner that leashed on a 15-2
run that fired up the Rockets and earned them their third straight home win.
"Usually the Lakers give up that corner 3 because Kobe doesn't really play me. He roams off of me. ... I shot the first one, and the second one was tougher because Gasol was running at me". Battier said later referring to the two trays he made that dished
out a lead for the Lakers.
Strongest Links
Odom played a sizzling game for the Lakers in the first three quarters. He connected on 11 for 14 shots while he grabbed 11 rebounds for the Lakers. This was indeed one of the best performances he gave this season and it didn’t really matter if he had a
0 for 2 outing in the fourth quarter. Odom has shot 54 percent or better than that in the previous five games out of his six games this season.
Weakest Links
Gasol was reduced to his season low eight points by the Rockets. They worked on him efficiently and the poor guy could only grab eight rebounds that were also his season low. It seemed that Gasol’s sore hamstring was the main reason behind his lack of energy.
He had 29 points and 11 rebounds when Lakers had contested a 112-110 victory against the Rockets on Oct. 26.
"[My hamstring] bothered me out there", said Gasol. "It didn't get loose at all. ... I'm concerned that it doesn't get better [and] we'll really have a problem".
Funny facts
"We are not playing well, and it's a joke". Odom had said about Lakers struggle for survival and now it seems like he was joking.
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