Lakers struggling to hit their 3's, Houston down by 6

Rockets playing sum D now and back in the game. Artest just hit a 3 then the got a stop and now it's a 3 point game to LA. Pretty sure playtime is gona come on for Kobe soon

Artest just put Houston in tha lead, 10 zip run by the Rockets yea boi, Quagmire what did you put in LA's gatorade lol

Ron Ron on fire.

Have to hand it to Quagmire... he picked the tone of this series dead-on, so far. Kinda scary for LA than Ming did nothing in the first half as well.

Yup Quagmire was on the money, kinda spooky.

Not spooky at all - Quagmire's predictions were clear and precise.

Is Yoa OK? Only 2 points in 10 minutes. Has to be more effective in the second half.

He had 3 fouls thedoctor - was always going to benched until the 2nd half.

clear and precise but in the context of this season seemed like a dream.

Fisher just got ejected for a flagrant on Scola as he tried to beat Scola's screen, that'll help Houston

88-81 to LAboy and playtime

Artest ejected? Interesting to see what happened there.

Yao saddled with foul trouble...

Artest gets ejected....

Wonder what dcanwade would be thinking right now...?

Just watched the elbow Kobe gave Artest and can't beleive a guy can get ejected for RECEIVING an elbow. No matter what he said to the officials after the incident, a good ref would of looked at the tape and said he was 100% provoked.

Disgraceful.

Also- Can we just call Kobe a jump shooter now and be done with it? The highlight packages didn't show him scoring within 20ft of the hoop....

Fisher is a punk too.

Did you mean to say Kobe Bryant is just a jump shooter?

Hes in the top 5 scorers of all time! Ridiculous call

And when you say Artest got ejected for recieveing an elbow, your not really telling the story are u...

He got ejected for excessively arguing (first tech) and then got ejecting for running half way up to court to get 1 cm from Bryants face before being held back (second tech).

This was an awesome game, nice and physical. I expect the same for the rest of the series...Kobe is in a zone with Battier though, its scary, hopefully for the Rockets half his team mates keep sucking ass.

Stat geek question: did Kobe get a missed FG attempt for shooting it off the backboard, catching and laying it in?

The elbow that Fisher threw on Scola was nasty...Suspension or not? Thoughts? Personally,I think that It deserves a one game suspension considering Howard got one game for something that wasn't as brutal...Consistency!

"We are playing basketball, there is a lot of contact taking place," Bryant said. "If you are going to be physical you have to expect to get physical back."

So that gives Kobe the right to elbow someone in the face. lol

Simmons note some interesting stats about Kobe just being a shooter now. His ave FTA have gone down for the past 4 or 5 seasons. Also he is averaging around 7 trips to the line this playoffs while MJ (98) and Wade (06) averaged close to 11 when they won. LA seem to be on cruise control and can't break out of it. The Cavs are playing with so much intensity right now (they remind me of Chicago in 91). LA do have a couple of more round until they meet the Cavs - but if they don't wake up soon they may find themselves watching instead of playing. Plus their much heralded depth seems to be a distant memory ith Rad Man gone and Farmer stinking it up.

The ejection on Artest was soft. However someone said above that this was his 2nd one and if this is accurate then it's ejection worthy. A normal technical was sufficient enough if the Ref wanted to show who's boss.

Artest was simply pointing out something and he was treated unfairly.

The NBA Refs have been a joke this playoffs. So many incidents with plenty of inconsistency. Some punished and others turned a blind eye.

Yup Rondo has got away with plenty and others have got away with nothing. I'm guessing Fishers gona get slapped with a suspension and Alston also. Heaps of techs in that LA Houston game , Walton, Odom, Schola, Bryant, Artest.

Artest was ejected for going after Kobe and trying to get in his face and talk trash after already receiving a technical, and hence was ejected.

Fisher - I don't agree in him being suspended, sure it was a hard hit - but seriously Scola is like twice his size and you'd swear he'd been shot when he hit the deck. Ejection worthy but not 1 game worthy.

Kobe has turned his game into a more late Jordan-esque style involving a lot more posting up etc - my bet is the The Zen Master has advised Kobe that this is a better way to go to ease the stress on his body?

Yeah, I thought Scola flopped pretty badly too Bizzy. Seemed a bit out of character for Fisher, really. But having said that, it was pretty unnecessary too.