The Rockets sat quietly, typical for a losing locker room. But this was different from the way they were when they were blown out of Game 7 in Dallas in 2005 or when they fell apart in the final minutes of Game 7 against Utah in 2007.
The Rockets were disappointed this time, but they were proud, too. They had spent the season overcoming obstacles, twice beating the Lakers without Yao Ming to push the series to a Game 7. They could not just brush aside how their season ended, but they would not ignore all that happened along the way.
"I'm really proud or our team, I mean everybody, the way they responded," Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. "Losing Yao, we won two games after that. I'm very proud of these guys. They busted their tails. Some of those young guys really improved during the series. They had their ups and downs, like you'd expect. Today more downs than ups. But, overall, I'm really pleased with them."
They were pleased, if not satisfied, determined to view the series and post-season as a start, rather than an end.
"We took this team to seven games," Carl Landry said. "This is a great team. Everybody has them winning the championship and everybody wants to see L.A. and the Cavs in the (Finals). But not us. Everybody in this locker room has heart."
LAKERS 89, ROCKETS 70: The Rockets had gone as far as they could, further than seemed likely or probable, further than many thought possible. Then they could go no farther and were through by the time Game 7 began. The Rockets missed their first 12 shots. The Lakers took a 25-point first-half lead, and the Rockets never drew closer than a 19-point deficit the rest of the way as Los Angeles advanced to the Western Conference Finals with the fourth-consecutive rout in the series. The Rockets made just 36.8 percent of their shots, scoring just 58 points in the first 45 minutes of the game.
