It was almost unfair, in retrospect.
The Houston Rockets (4-6) picked the wrong time for their defense to debilitate and for James Harden and Jeremy Lin to have a dreadful combined 9-of-27 shooting night...just as the talent-heavy Los Angeles Lakers (5-5) were firing on all cylinders on offense, beating Houston 119-108 Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
It was a game full of milestones for the Lakers-who picked up their fourth win in five games--as Kobe Bryant scored his 18th career triple-double with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists and Pau Gasol scored 17 points for his 15,000th career point, while Dwight Howard scored 28 points and 13 rebounds as they victimized the Rockets' 26th league-ranked defense for 40 first quarter points and 51 second-half points.
And coach Mike D'Antoni, who coached Lin last season in New York during his "Linsanity" run, was in attendance, watching the game from the locker room.
"We're just picking apart the defense," Bryant, who also had three of Los Angeles' 10 steals, told NBA.com afterwards. "We're putting the defense in predicaments where they have to choose, and we're making them pay."
And Houston-allowing opponents 100.8 points per night-paid the price for their defensive lapses with their sixth loss in eight games.
Chandler Parsons scored 24 points and Harden had 20 for the Rockets, but struggled from the field with 7-of-18 shooting. Lin dished out 10 assists, but had a miserable scoring night, scoring only five points going 2-for-9 in 31 minutes of play.
After the game, Lin and Harden told the Houston Chronicle that the Rockets were still adjusting to the offense, but both described the progress as steady.
I think it's getting better every game," Lin said. "I think our first two games were too good to be true. Defenses started to adjust. Now we're starting to get back to some of the things that worked for us before. I think it's going well. Every game, we learn a little more and we get a little better.
"That's still what we're going through right now. We're feeling it out. I think we're trying to find sets and ways we can play off each other and complement each other," he added.
Lin went into Sunday's game averaging 10.9 points, 6.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game but struggling in his shooting, with only 35.5 percent of his shots being made.
However, acting coach Kelvin Sampson noted that Lin has been playing to his strengths in creating off the dribble.
"Jeremy's pretty smart," Sampson said. "He plays to his strength. He's a better scorer/slasher than he is a shooter. He's not a spot-up shooter. Jeremy is a creator. We always encourage him to attack close-outs. If the ball is swung to him and the guy is closing out on him, we want him to attack the closeout, and usually something good happens on the weak side."
Sometime after, Lin also visited D'Antoni in the visitors locker room to catch up. Having enjoyed huge success under D'Antoni's run-and-gun offense in New York, Lin had nothing but praise for his former coach.
"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."
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