[mary]

I watched the game last night and honestly, neither team was doing a real good job of utilizing their big men. Yao was completely tenative up until his clutch shot in the fourth. He only got to the line 1 freaking time - that's insane. Even though Francis was pretty clutch last night, during the course of the game I thought he did a really poor job of running the offense. He stills spends too many possessions trying to get off his own shot. If Houston wants to get anywhere, they need to move him to the 2 and get a legitimate PG in there.

The Lakers obviously have a problem with the pecking order, but I don't think it'll stop them from wrapping up this series. I do expect them to move on to the second round (where they'll be promptly turned into dogfood).

The Payton thing is pretty intriguing. He looked pretty steamed sitting on the bench for the entire fourth quarter.