What an amazing series...so amazing...it's amazing

The new NBA slogan this year is "It's Amazing." Well, this series played every bit like that slogan beside Jerry West's silhouette.

The Lakers and Houston series was amazing on a lot of different levels. It was amazing that the Rockets stole Game 1. It was amazing in Game 2 when the Lakers got tough and knocked the Rockets around with flagrants, techs, and a Fisher suspension. It was amazing that after Yao got in injured in Game 3, the Rockets were able to bounce back and humble the Lakers in Game 4 with a 99-87 victory. It was amazing that the Lakers decided to actually play to their talent in Game 5, and destroy the Rockets by 40. It was amazing that in the very next game, the Lakers lost in Houston again, by going down 17-1 in the first quarter. Finally, it was amazing that the Lakers finished this series in seven games, when Houston had no business taking it that far.

What's done is done though, and the Lakers roared back to a wire-to-wire dominant victory against the pesky Rockets 89-70. Without any question, this was the best defensive performance the Lakers have had all year.

Their defensive rotations were outstanding off the pick and roll. The double team help off the baseline was on point. Derek Fisher funneled Brooks and for once, the bigs were there to help out. Trevor Ariza was as active as anyone on defense, forcing Artest to take crazy shots, and making 3-4 three-pointers. Four of the five starters had at least two blocks.

But the biggest reason why the Lakers were able to take this game was the dominant play of their bigs Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

Drew was oustanding at doing the little things he needs to do for this team to succeed. He was scoring off put-back dunks, rebounding the ball in traffic, playing great help D, and altering/blocking enough shots to be a force down low.

Pau also played as fierce as I've ever seen him. He was rebounding in traffic for god's sake! The player known as "Gasoft" captured 18 rebounds!

Kobe Bryant realized that less is more, and only hoisted 12 shots (4-12 FG). He was also very actively defensively, with 3 steals, and giving Shane Battier a little taste of his own medicine by face guarding him to a miserable shooting performance (1-6 FG, 0-4 3-Pt FG).

The Black Mamba had to have listened to his own voice over of that boring documentary "Kobe Doin' Work," the night before. In that Spike Lee snore fest, Kobe pointed out that his Laker team had to patient and move the ball for things to happen. Kobe finally listened to himself, exploited their size advantage, and picked up the victory.

Finally, Kobe and his teammates admitted what observers have seen all series...

"Our effort could have been much better," Bryant said of the series. "We definitely could have played a lot harder. In a perfect-case scenario, everybody just kind of sweeps through each playoff series and you go on and win the NBA championship. But that's not the reality. Last year at this time everybody was pegging us as unbeatable and we got mopped up in the Finals. I'd much rather be a team that's there at the end of the Finals, not now."

"I think we were stubborn," said Trevor Ariza, trying to explain the series. "I think we thought we could be the best team on talent alone. I think we learned that in the playoffs, teams will step on your throat to get where they're going."

Oh yeah almost forgot...The Machine is alive! He made 4-7 shots in the face of all the Sasha haters on this site!

Take that George in HB!