Rockets-Lakers Preview

By JUSTIN EINHORN
Posted Nov 17 2012 3:43PM

Though Mike D'Antoni has yet to coach the Los Angeles Lakers from the sidelines, his new team already has started to adapt to his high-octane offense.

Even without the familiar face he expects to be running it.

The Lakers' most recent game appeared to show D'Antoni's arrival has made a quick impact, and now he's expected to be on their bench for the first time Sunday night against the visiting Houston Rockets.

"This is a great city to have an up-tempo, exciting game that has a legitimate shot to win a championship," D'Antoni said Thursday upon taking over. "I can't ask for anything more."

A 1-4 start resulted in coach Mike Brown being fired, and Los Angeles (4-5) passed up the possibility of bringing back Phil Jackson by hiring D'Antoni on Monday. The former Phoenix and New York coach has been on crutches as he recovers from knee replacement surgery earlier this month, delaying his arrival in Los Angeles.

D'Antoni ran practice Thursday for the first time, beginning the implementation of his free-flowing style, but wasn't on the bench for a game against the Suns on Friday night. Even with interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff still at the helm, the Lakers picked up their offense and put some of D'Antoni's offerings into play en route to their highest-scoring game of the season in a 114-102 win.

"Not as many post-ups," Pau Gasol said in describing the offense. "More transition and quicker shots, I guess. ... We played pretty simple basketball and just played off each other."

Los Angeles has gone 3-1 under Bickerstaff despite playing without Steve Nash. The two-time MVP who had so much success running D'Antoni's Suns teams has missed seven straight games with a leg fracture, and the team announced Friday he would miss at least another week.

Despite his history with Nash, D'Antoni said he was looking forward to working with backup point guard Steve Blake. However, the 10-year veteran has missed the past two games with a strained abdomen and might not return Sunday. Darius Morris has totaled six points and seven assists in two games as the starter.

The rotating point guard situation hasn't negatively affected Kobe Bryant, who is especially looking forward to playing in D'Antoni's system.

"We're just getting started, but it will make a lot of things easier," said Bryant, who scored 31 points Friday. "Everybody kind of moves, the whole offense has to find their position."

Things haven't been easy for the Rockets (4-5).

Coach Kevin McHale is still away for a personal matter, and Houston has split the four games he's missed. First-round pick Royce White also isn't with the team, upset with management's "inconsistent" handling of him regarding anxiety issues.

The Rockets also are having problems putting teams away. They nearly wasted a 20-point advantage in the second half against New Orleans in a 100-96 win Wednesday, and that came between two defeats in which they blew seven-point leads in the final four-plus minutes.

"It's frustrating. It hurts," Chandler Parsons said after a 119-117 overtime loss at Portland on Friday. "... Something's got to change where we can close out games better so that when we get these big leads we can keep them and extend them."

Parsons has averaged 19.0 points over the past three games, a stretch during which Omer Asik also has stepped up with 16.7 points and 14.0 rebounds per game.

Asik now must battle Dwight Howard, who like the young Rockets center has posted three straight double-doubles.

Jeremy Lin had his second double-double in a Houston uniform Friday with 11 points and 11 assists, but he's shot 30.3 percent from the field over the last four games.

James Harden scored 29 points Friday, but the Rockets fell to 1-5 when he fails to reach 30.

Lakers rip Rockets 119-108 for 4th win in 5 games

By GREG BEACHAM
Posted Nov 19 2012 1:26AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) After just two practices and two games together, Kobe Bryant already can see Mike D'Antoni's ideas and schemes improving the Los Angeles Lakers.

Although a triple-double isn't usually part of Bryant's game plan, he happily picked it up along with another win for a team that has been revitalized before their new coach has even taken the court.

Bryant had 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his 18th career triple-double, and the Lakers ran past the Houston Rockets 119-108 Sunday night for their fourth victory in five games since firing coach Mike Brown.

Dwight Howard had 28 points and 13 rebounds, and Pau Gasol scored his 15,000th career point among his 17 as the Lakers returned to .500 by running away from their second straight opponent since D'Antoni took over their practices. Although D'Antoni and his surgically replaced knee haven't even appeared on Los Angeles' bench yet, his new team is already playing with passion and fluidity it hadn't showed during a miserable start to the season.

"We're just picking apart the defense," said Bryant, who also had three of Los Angeles' 10 steals. "We're putting the defense in predicaments where they have to choose, and we're making them pay."

D'Antoni watched his second straight game from the Lakers' locker room while interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff ran the bench. D'Antoni decided earlier Sunday to delay his debut, giving him at least a few more days to recover from surgery.

Bickerstaff improved to 4-1 while filling in for Brown and D'Antoni, who announced the longtime NBA coach and executive will remain on his staff - as long as the Lakers beat Houston, D'Antoni joked.

Bickerstaff's job is secure after the Lakers ran away from the Rockets in the second half. From Bryant's sharp passes to Howard's rim-rocking, two-handed slams, Los Angeles played with flair, even while point guard Steve Nash missed his eighth straight game with a small fracture in his leg.

"Every day, there's a little more" of D'Antoni's system in the Lakers, Bickerstaff said. "It's best to do a few things well and get it down, because all of those things, they have options off them."

The Lakers already are running a significant portion of D'Antoni's playbook, and it showed in a second straight free-flowing victory for a team that followed an 0-8 preseason with a 1-4 start, leading to Brown's dismissal just nine days ago. The Lakers scored 114 points while beating Phoenix two days ago.

Chandler Parsons scored 24 points and James Harden had 20 for the Rockets, who have lost six of eight. Coach Kevin McHale missed his fourth straight game during a leave of absence to deal with a family matter.

"It's tough, man. That's our leader," Parsons said. "We can't do much except pray for his family and him, and hope he comes back soon. We love playing for him. But at the same time, Coach Sampson has done a good job. We have the same offense, same system, same principles on defense. So it's not like we're a different team. We still need to be playing a lot better, so there's no excuse."

Darius Morris scored a career-high 12 points for the Lakers while doing a decent defensive job on Jeremy Lin, who had 10 assists but just five points on 2-of-9 shooting. Lin visited with D'Antoni after the game, recalling their remarkable few months together last season in New York.

"He's the ultimate players' coach, very similar to Coach McHale," Lin said. "I think he just gets it. He knows how to get the most out of his players. They'll be just fine. What you saw tonight, they'll probably be able to do pretty consistently, in terms of moving the ball and spacing. And with Dwight Howard down low, it's tough because he has that whole key to roam in."

With an offensive rebound with 5 1/2 minutes to play, Bryant recorded his first triple-double since Nov. 3, 2010, at Sacramento. The NBA's fifth-leading career scorer was in top form, breaking down defenders and hitting acrobatic shots with the flair of his best games.

But Bryant doesn't have to win games by himself, and the rest of the Lakers were sharp as well. Howard attacked the basket relentlessly while his teammates set him up for high-percentage shots, and Metta World Peace contributed 15 points.

With a smooth jumper in the second half, Gasol became the 10th foreign-born player and the first Spaniard to score 15,000 NBA points. The four-time All-Star has won two titles with the Lakers, and the Staples Center fans gave him an ovation when his achievement was announced.

"I think it's something to be proud of," said Gasol, who joins a list of foreign-born scorers including Nash, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki and Dominique Wilkins. "I'm happy to reach this milestone, but I want to continue to be as productive as I've been throughout my career."

NOTES: Houston concludes its three-game trip Monday at Utah. ... Shortly after D'Antoni confirmed Bickerstaff is staying with the team, the Lakers formally announced Dan D'Antoni will join the staff as an assistant. Mike D'Antoni's older brother has been in practice with the Lakers since Thursday. ... Houston C Omer Asik left the game in the first half with a cut over his right eye, but returned for the second half after getting five stitches.

Notebook: Lakers 119, Rockets 108

Dan Arritt, For NBA.com
Posted Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:29 AM - Updated Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:38 AM

THE FACTS: The Lakers turned their newly-installed offense up another notch Sunday night and Kobe Bryant had his hands at the controls, recording 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in the 119-108 victory against the Rockets at Staples Center. The win lifted L.A. to .500 for the first time this season.

QUOTABLE: "I'm a scorer, not a triple-double player."

--Kobe Bryant.

THE STAT: Bryant, off to one of the best starts in his 17-year career, recorded his 18th triple-double and the first in a little more than two years. Not to be completely outdone, every other starter for the Lakers also scored in double figures.

TURNING POINT: After an opening nine minutes that featured three ties and 14 lead changes, Bryant gave the Lakers the lead for good with 12-foot jumper -- the start of a 16-4 run to end the quarter. After the Rockets trimmed the deficit to four early in the third, Metta World Peace had six points and Bryant five in a 12-0 surge that put L.A. ahead by double digits for good.

HOT: With newly hired coach Mike D'Antoni still rehabbing from knee surgery, interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff was left to call the shots for a fifth consecutive game. D'Antoni's message must be getting through loud and clear from the trainer's room, however. The Lakers put up 40 points in the opening quarter while shooting 73.9 percent from the floor (17-for-23). Bryant was well on his way to the triple-double after the opening 12 minutes, totaling 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

NOT: Houston point guard Jeremy Lin continues to drift far from the "Linsanity" that took over the NBA last spring. He shot 2-for-9 and scored five points against the Lakers. Lin, lured from the Knicks with a three-year, $25-million contract he signed over the summer, is 33-for-93 on the season (35.5 percent) and has yet to shoot better than 50 percent in a game.

GOOD MOVE: It might not have been the prettiest assist of World Peace's career, but good chance it traveled the furthest. With two seconds left in the first quarter, World Peace threw an inbounds pass the length of the court to 7-foot forward Pau Gasol, who boxed out the Houston defense while camped under the basket, snared the pass and then laid it in at the buzzer for a 40-29 lead.

BAD MOVE: The Rockets must have known it would be a long night when both Lin and center Omer Asik suffered cuts to their forehead area in the first half. They both returned to the game but were the only Houston starters held to single digits in scoring.

QUOTABLE II: "Just because they have a new offense doesn't mean they're going to score 120. You know, if you don't guard them, they're going to look good."

-- Rockets coach Kelvin Sampson

NOTABLE: Gasol surpassed 15,000 points for his NBA career, becoming the 10th foreign-born player to reach that mark. ... The Lakers have scored 30 points or more in four of eight quarters since D'Antoni's first practice Thursday. ... Lakers point guard Darius Morris, in a starting role while Steve Nash (fractured lower left leg) and Steve Blake (lower abdominal strain) recover from their injuries, scored a career-high 12 points.

UP NEXT: For the Lakers: Tuesday vs. Brooklyn, Wednesday @ Sacramento, Friday @ Memphis. For the Rockets: Monday @ Utah, Wednesday vs. Chicago, Friday vs. New York

• Rockets: Machado, Motiejunas, White
• Lakers: Blake, Nash

• Rockets: --
• Lakers: World Peace

• Lead Changes: 14
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #28 Zach Zarba, #35 Kane Fitzgerald, #72 JT Orr
• Attendance: 18997
• Duration: 2:12