"We've shown we can win with the team we have," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said.

There's your bottom line. He has done a masterful job of keeping this team pointed in the right direction, in allowing players to flourish, in building on the fly and in shocking the world.

"I don't think we're going to get overwhelmed by Game 7," Adelman said. "If they beat us, they beat us. I would be very shocked if we got overwhelmed by it."

Praise from the top

The Rockets don't have as much size or experience as the Lakers. The Rockets don't have a player as good as Kobe Bryant.

The Rockets don't have a lot of things, and they especially have little margin for error. If they miss shots and get careless with the ball, they can be run off the floor as they were in Game 5.

What they've also shown is that when they take care of business, they have enough speed, tenacity, smarts and confidence to win.

Mainly what they have is a team. As they've lost star players to injuries, other players have stepped forward and bonded and performed better than the outside world thought possible.

That's the part of this story that's easy to overlook. The Rockets think they're going to win. The Rockets believe.

"I admire this team as much as any team I've ever had," Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said Saturday afternoon. "To persevere like they have, losing their two best players - a lot of teams quit.

"This team is all about pride and heart, and I admire them greatly."

A few hours earlier, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed to have lost a bit of their cockiness.

"At times, it seems we lack intensity and aggressiveness," Pau Gasol said.

Something seemed to change in this series the other night right about the time Phil Jackson began to complain about his team's injuries.

Really, Phil? You don't really want to go down that road, do you? At least take your medicine like a man.

If Los Angeles loses Game 7, the story line around the country will be that the Lakers choked like dogs.

The Rockets will be praised for their tenacity, but this afternoon, the burden of pressure is all on the Lakers.

"We didn't play as hard as we should have," Bryant said of Friday's 15-point loss at Toyota Center.

?Annoying little brother'

Will Game 7 be different?

"That's the million-dollar question," Bryant said.

There have been elbows thrown, hard words exchanged and fights broken up.

Adelman spoke with Von Wafer about allowing Sasha Vujacic to get under his skin and take him out of his game.

"He's got to understand what he's trying to do," Adelman said.

Along the way, the Rockets have hidden their anger better than the Lakers. At the end of Game 6, Shane Battier simply walked away from a barking Vujacic.

Surely, the Lakers now respect the Rockets . Surely, they believe there are two teams in this series.

"I don't know if they really believe it," Battier said. "That's a feeling you get from them. If they want to have that attitude for one more game and let us do what we do, that's fine by us."

Do you agree with that, Chuck Hayes?

"Maybe they see us as the annoying little brother that won't go away," he said. "That's fine with us. This is the seventh game, and we're still here.

"One slip-up and we could be going to Denver."

Those annoying little brothers are still hanging around, refusing to go quietly, refusing to give in.

Now it's the Lakers who will have to adjust. They must slow down Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks, and even if they focus on Brooks, he has to find the open man.

Adelman has preached again and again that no matter how the Lakers counterpunch, there's always an answer.

"We're ready to play," Adelman said.

richard.justice@chron.com