Los Angeles-Houston Game 7

The following are the keys to victory for each team:

LA wins if:

1) They show up and play with a sense of urgency.

Houston wins if:

1) Aaron Brooks continues to penetrate

2) Shane Battier takes and makes the 3 point shot. This will make Kobe Bryant expend some more energy on defense and reduce his prefrence to "roam" around and disrupt the passing lanes.

3) Luis Scola is a force in the post

4) Chuck Hayes stays out of foul trouble

5) Ron Artest has a good night on the offensive end

The following are things that the opposing team is hoping for:

LA hopes that:

1) Houston's offense consists of Artest endlessly dribbling the ball and looking for his shot

Houston hopes that:

1) Kobe Bryant continues to take 2 point turnaround, fadeaway jumpers with a hand in his face

2) The Lakers do not go inside to Pau Gasol

3) The Lakers believe that the Rockets are satisfied with just getting to Game 7.

Prediction:

While I first predicted that Houston would win this series in 7 games, that was before Yao went down with an injury. Once Yao went down in Game 3, I immediatly got the feeling that LA would wrap this up in 5 games.

That being said this Houston team has really impressed me. They shocked the Lakers and the rest of the world, by taking two of the next three games. They have all the intangibles that you would want in a championship team: They play hard, they play together, they're tough, they are not intimidated by anybody, etc. But, I'm going to have to go with the Lakers. As much as I hate to pick against an underdog team like the Rockets, the Lakers have shown that they can get it done when they need to (it's when they have no sense of urgency, they have a problem).