@gasol
Pau gasol has pretty good handles for a big guy. He did the between the legs dribble near the free throw line to set up a three point play. And even tried a semi step back dribble a few plays after.

@Kobe
I think he’s an arm shooter… His power does not come from the knees. The footwork just provides the balance but the shot strength comes from the arms. When you look at kobe’s three point plays now, it’s rarely the layup/drive/dunk variety but more on the hang in the air jumper. After seeing that block by battier but made it anyway shot (see shane’s frustration afterward) I began looking at his free throws. I noticed that you don’t really see the full lift coming from the bending of the knees but more of arm control.

On Artest:
He killed the momentum of Houston, when houston was still trying to bring the lead down to single digits there were a couple of plays where he forced up some drives or shots.

It got so bad that the broadcast team referenced chauncy billups not giving the ball to certain people during moments in the game because they would shoot the team out of it.

That and Yao is just hilarious. That “see you in the club” line was just too funny.

The Lakers showed great hospitality for game 1, allowing the Rox to feel right at home. They responded by stealing the game, taking home court advantage with them back to Texas. They wanted to steal game 2 as well, but hospitality has it’s limits, and Derek Fisher gave the Rox an unmistakeable sign that stealing has consequences–even in laid back LA.

What would happen in cowboy country? Would the Rox be equally hospitable? Or. would they send a Texas message that finders are keepers, and they were unwilling to give that home court advantage back. Were the Lakers being invited to a barbeque, or a man to man
shootout with Rox enforcer “Ron Ron”?

Turned out that the Rox were willing to be hospitable to a point, but they were not willing to give the Lake Show home court advantage back without a fight.

So the Lake show came to Texas as a group of LA Homies, determined to bring the home court advantage back with them–determined to win a shootout. From the earliest moments of the game, shots were fired and returned, but as the smoke cleared and the time ran down, Lakeshow clearly were about to get home court advantage back,

So Ron Ron sent the Lakers an unmistakeable sign that hospitality was withdrawn for game 4.

The Lakeshow must accept the reality that they face shootouts for the rest of the series with the Rox until only one team is left standing.

We’ll see how those LA Homies respond to this new challenge tomorrow.

Perhaps Farmar should be starting this series, but don’t get carried away because the next series (assuming we win) it will be either Chauncy or Jason and Farmar should see a substantially reduced role. I wouldn’t be suprised if Fish pulls a Walton and suggests to Phil that Farmar start, but only for this one series.