HOUSTON — Whether alternately toying with, or getting punked by, the Houston Rockets, the consensus was the Los Angeles Lakers were in control of the NBA’s Western Conference semifinals.
Today, it’s definitely time to reassess the situation. Just two nights after supposedly registering the knockout punch in the best-of-seven series, the Lakers, the conference’s top seed — and arguably the most talented team in the entire league — are now fighting for their postseason lives.
That’s because the Rockets, no strangers to climbing up off the deck, rallied from a 40-point loss on Tuesday to register a 95-80 victory in Game 6 on Thursday night at the Toyota Center. And while that final margin may not be as overwhelming as the previous contest, rest assured that it was big enough to create a sizable amount of disbelief among virtually anyone outside of Houston that there will actually be a Game 7 played Sunday at the Staples Center in downtown L.A.
“The last two days, all I’ve heard is that we wouldn’t be going back to L.A, but the guys in that locker room didn’t believe that,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “This is a special team. That wasn’t us in the last game. This team has so much heart; we’re just playing and seeing how far we can go.”
If the injury-riddled Rockets should spring one of the more — in what is quite the well-worn phrase — amazing upsets in playoff history, the series against the Nuggets would begin at the Pepsi Center.
That’s certainly not a script that would get green-lighted in Hollywood, but it’s becoming as reliable as an old Stetson here in Texas. After the Game 5 debacle Tuesday, much was made of the fact that the morning after was the 15th anniversary of one of the Rockets’ last miracles.
Then, after blowing an 18-point fourth-quarter lead to Phoenix in the second game of the 1994 conference semifinals, local headlines screamed “Choke City.”
However, Houston rallied to win that series, and by the time they overcame a 3-2 deficit against New York to win the NBA Finals, the area was known as “Clutch City.”
But while somewhat appealing in a nostalgic kind of way, all the local reminiscing was thought to be so much whistling past the graveyard. Those Rockets teams had Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Cassell. This team couldn’t even boast Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutumbo and Tracy McGrady, all out with assorted injuries.
In their place were Luis Scola, Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks, names that, compared with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, might not get star billing in their own households.
But the trio was incandescent Thursday. Scola had 24 points and 12 rebounds, with 18 and nine, respectively, coming in the opening half. The second half belonged to Brooks and Landry; the former had a team-high 26 points, the latter scored 15 with nine rebounds.
After losing here in Game 4, Jackson was asked if he was embarrassed by the defeat, a question that clearly rankled. In his postgame news conference Thursday, that was again the first question Jackson received.
This time, the Zen Master merely smiled and asked for the next query. Moments later, Jackson was asked if he at least worried about his highly regarded team being bounced on its collective reputation out of the playoffs.
“I’m not worried. There’s nothing to be worried about,” he said. “It’s just a game, a game being played on our home court. It’s what we’ve played for, and the last time we played there we beat them by whatever it was.
“We’re just a different team on our home court. That’s pretty obvious by now.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
Who should Nuggets fans root for in the Lakers-Rockets Game 7?
LET’S GO ROCK-ETS!
• Houston is without injured center Yao Ming, who is 7-foot-6 and is lost for the remainder of the playoffs with a fractured foot. With backup Dikembe Mutombo also out, Houston starts Chuck Hayes, who is 6-6.
• Even though he was having a down year, Tracy McGrady’s season-ending injury leaves Houston without a dominant scorer. Yes, Ron Artest can light it up at times, and Aaron Brooks has ascended, but, c’mon, you’d rather face them than Kobe.
LET’S GO LAK-ERS!
• The Nuggets have fed off an us-against-the-world attitude all season, from being picked to miss the playoffs, to tough officiating, to disrespect from the Mavs. If they play L.A., few people will pick them to win, and maybe that’s a good thing.
• The 2004 Red Sox won their first World Series in ages, knocking out the hated Yankees along the way. Denver, Chauncey Billups suggests, is in the midst of a storybook season. And what better chapter than one about beating the Lakers?
