It seems like injuries are everywhere this year. The final showdown between the Houston Rockets and the L.A. Lakers would be no different as Pau Gasol (Bynum) and Yao Ming were missing from the action Sunday night. The Rockets have finally gotten the attention of the ‘main stream media’ and Sundays game was proof as the game was moved to an earlier time slot and was shown on ABC. With the injuries listed above all eyes and ears were focused on T-Mac and Kobe Bryant. In recent games past McGrady has often been the leading scorer in the Rockets victories but not this time. In fact he wasn’t even 2nd or 3rd, he was 5th behind Battier and Scola with only 11 points. With McGrady in the defensive cross hairs Rafer Alston and Bobby Jackson did what was expected of them, … hit the open shots. And boy did they! The duo combined for a whopping 50 points, Rafer with career high 31 and Jackson with a solid 19.

So if you would’ve told me that the Houston Rockets were going to be up by 15 at the half and that T-Mac would have ZERO points I would’ve asked you to put down what you are smoking. As it turns out Houston’s defense, in particular Shane Battier, were stellar. Battier was tasked with the simple job to hold Kobe Bryant and although Bryant had 24 points he was only 11-33 from the field. But hats off to Rafer and Jackson for offensively carrying this team in a crucial game against a division rival.

Now the stage is set for Tuesday night when the Rockets will play the Boston Celtics. Both teams are #1 in their respective conferences so this will be another test for Houston as they rewrite the NBA history book