Ten things more exciting than the Rockets' performance in Game 3

Yahoo Sports is reporting it as an ankle sprain. Here’s the link:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview;ylt=AltufX407xQp7DgF6GwN.W8vLYF?gid=2009051010&prov=ap

Who will start at C now? Hayes? I’m depressed.
I hope Joey Dorsey gets play time so at least we’ll have something to laugh about.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/news/story?id=4154628

and I really, really can’t stand the Rockets. That said, this completely sucks—I don’t want to win by default because of injuries. This has been a superb first three games of a playoff series, really everything we could have asked for, so to see it go this way just sucks. Yao in particular has both impressed and terrified me; it’s clear that at full strength, we didn’t have much of an answer for him. I’m not sure the human body is designed to be 7’6—foot problems just seem inevitable, and the wear and tear of having to play for China can’t help—but he’s basically the most skilled 7’6 guy imaginable. Between the 85% from the line, that soft spin-baseline-fadeaway touch, the almost insouciant way he discourages penetration with his tree-like stature … it’s been a pleasure to watch him play in this series, and there is no part of me celebrating him going down.

That said, you guys don’t have a prayer without him. No offense.

Yeah, maybe Artest can “take out the entire Lakers team” the way he did during the four beat downs Houston suffered at the hands of LA during the regular season. It’s one thing to be a fan, it’s an entirely different thing being a self-deluding, wishful-thinking, violence-baiting nut. Like Roy Jones said, “y’all must’ve forgot!”

This season, LA has beat the Rockets six out of seven times. Is there any reasonable person in here who would argue that, even with Yao in, the Rockets would suddenly overturn the form book and beat a Laker team that has up to now won almost 86% of their games against Houston? If you can make that argument with a straight face I’ll suggest you go look up the meaning of ‘self-delusional’. Having said that, I’m sorry for Houston fans, and I hope Yao makes a speedy recovery. I would have enjoyed the series more with Yao in, but for now, I’ll simply ignore those Rockets fans who try to place an asterisk on LA’s victory over Houston. Maybe the Rockets should take a page from Boston’s playbook and play hard and not complain about injuries.

Championships are not built on frail knees, weak backs, suspect feet, and unstable temperaments. True stars are not born of wishful thinking by biased fans. Kobe is a beast; if you truly love the game of basketball you would give the man his due. Artest has become totally unglued since that elbow. He got shot happy in game three because his ego took over and he had to prove a point. There is nothing in Artest’s history to suggest he’d be anything but erratic in games 4 and 5. The real tragedy of Yao’s injury is that now Artest will be fully exposed.