2009 NBA Playoffs: Western Conference Semifinals, Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets, Game 4

Information about game 4 of the L.A. Lakers vs. Houston Rockets series in the 2009 NBA Playoffs, with score, recap, pictures, stats, highlights, quotes and Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol performance.

Los Angeles Lakers

2009 NBA Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets

Houston Rockets

Series Index:

Game 1: Rockets 100, Lakers 92 at L.A.   Game recap & pictures
Game 2: Lakers 111, Rockets 98 at L.A.   Game recap & pictures
Game 3: Lakers 108, Rockets 94 at Houston   Game recap & pictures
Game 4: Rockets 99, Lakers 87 at Houston Game recap & pictures
Game 5: Lakers 118, Rockets 78 at L.A.   Game recap & pictures
Game 6: Rockets 95, Lakers 80 at Houston   Game recap & pictures
Game 7: Lakers 89, Rockets 70 at L.A.   Game recap & pictures

Back to Playoffs 2009

Los Angeles Lakers 2 - 2 Houston Rockets

GAME 4: Houston Rockets 99 - L.A. Lakers 87

No Yao, no problem for Houston.

Leaders Points Rebounds Assists
Lakers Gasol: 30 Gasol: 9 Bryant: 5
Rockets Brooks: 34 Scola: 14 Artest: 6
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot
LAL 16 20 18 33 87
HOU 29 25 29 16 99
click for Lakers 2009 Playoff pictures (LA Daily News), Western Conference Semifinals vs. Houston Rockets Game 4
Picture Gallery (LAT)

May 10 - Houston - When the news of Yao Ming's foot fracture arrived everybody though the season was over for Houston but they came on fire, took advantage of a confused Laker team and tied the series with a 99-87 victory.

Three minutes into the game Luis Scola scored his first points to make it 9-0 for Houston and the Lakers never found a way to recover. It was 19-4 a couple of minutes later and 26-9 with 3:34 left in the period. In fact, the Rockets never trailed and led by as many as 29 points. The Lakers were a disaster for 3 quarters and then made a final attempt in the fourth when they outscored the Rockets 33-16 just to make the score a little less embarrassing.

With L.A. trying to take advantage of the lack of height in the Rockets paint, second-year point guard Aaron Brooks scored a career-high 34 points, Shane Battier, usually just an excellent defender, made five 3-pointers to add a playoff career-high of 23 points and Luis Scola scored 11 points and dominated the boards with 14 rebounds. Yao Ming, who won't return in these playoffs, was replaced with an improvised and undersized center in 6-6 forward Chuck Hayes. Hayes did a great job on Pau Gasol who scored 30 points but couldn't find any rhythm until fourth quarter when things were almost over and he scored 18 points. Kobe Bryant was erratic and had 15 points on 7-for-17 shooting and 5 assists

The Rockets led 54-36 at the halftime break and with 17 points by Brooks they outscored L.A. 29-18 in the third which ended with the Lakers' lowest point of the game. Artest inbounded the ball from midcourt to a flying Brooks who caught the ball in the air to beat the buzzer with a layup. The Lakers couldn't even capitalize Ron Artest bad shooting night. He was 4-for-19 from the field including 0-for-3 on three-pointers and ended with 8 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.

Despite height being one of the Lakers best qualities they were outrebounded 43-37. Lamar Odom had 2 points and 6 rebounds before having to leave the game for good after committing an offensive foul on Battier and falling badly to the floor. Andrew Bynum keeps struggling and was scoreless for the second time against Houston. As he always does lately he couldn't avoid committing fouls and was benched for good after 11 minutes, 3 fouls and 2 rebounds. Derek Fisher was back from a one-game suspension but had only two points in almost 20 minutes. Backups Shannon Brown (14 points) and Jordan Farmar (7 points) were just a little more effective than Fisher but nobody could really contain the small Brooks and his speed.

The Quotes

Phil Jackson (LAL Coach): "They (the L.A. players) didn’t anticipate the energy that they were going to come with, but you say as much as you can as a coach and then the players have to execute and do it on the floor

Kobe Bryant (Lakers): "I just don’t think we started the game with the right energy or the right focus or sense of urgency"

Lamar Odom (Lakers): "We just happened to play probably our worst game of the year"

Shane Battier (Rockets): "I think everyone but us got the memo that we weren't supposed to show up today without Yao". About outscoring Kobe 23-15: "This box score may be framed in my house. I don't think this is going to happen too often in my career. He's going to come back with a vengeance in Game 5, there's no question."

Highlights

Los Angeles Lakers Houston Rockets
Leaders: Pts Reb Ast St Bl More
Pau Gasol 30 9 1 - 2  
Kobe Bryant 15 2 5 4 -  
Shannon Brown 14 3 - 1 -  
Jordan Farmar 7 3 1 - -  
Sasha Vujacic 7 - 1 1 -  
Leaders: Pts Reb Ast St Bl More
Aaron Brooks 34 3 4 - 1  
Shane Battier 23 4 1 - 1 5/10 3pt
Kyle Lowry 12 2 2 2 1  
Luis Scola 11 14 2 - -  
Ron Artest 8 10 6 1 - 4/19 fg

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