By Paul Williamson
The Houston Rockets dropped a winnable game Thursday night 99-98 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Toyota Center.
Steve Blake hit the game winning three with 1.3 seconds remaining after being freed by screens on the in-bound play.
Blake’s catch-and-shoot three to win it was the sixteenth three by the Lakers on the night. The Lakers were draining them all night, shooting just over 45 percent from beyond the arch.
Despite Los Angeles’ sharpshooting and Houston’s offensive woes, the Rockets were still in the game due to some nitty-gritty defense.
This game was sloppy at times. 41 turnovers were committed by both teams, 20 of them were steals.
What the game lacked in execution, the teams made up for with hustle.
Bodies were flying all over the court Thursday night and defensive intensity was mimicking a playoff game.
However, in the fourth quarter, Laker head coach Mike D’antoni employed the hack-a-Howard “defensive” strategy.
Howard was only two-for-two in his late game trips to the free-three line once and only made five of 16 charity stripe shots all night.
Last year, D’antoni was critical of the hack-a-Howard defense, when he was Howard’s coach.
“I’m not crazy,” said D’antoni as to why he went with the strategy given his stance on it last year, according to ESPN.com.
He’s not crazy, and his team won.
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