A FEW blocks removed from the moment that nearly took everything from him, Carl Landry was flying. He was soaring and scoring and as always, he was smiling that broad, toothpaste commercial smile.

Landry nailed tough jumpers and bent Toyota Center rims. He drove the Rockets through their final run past the Lakers in Thursday's Game 6 triumph and to Sunday's Game 7 in Los Angeles.

Never in the glow of success that followed did he think of how it all could have been lost when he was shot in his left leg after unknown assailants rammed his SUV near downtown in the early hours of March 17. It was an inexplicable and terrifying night when he went from being a young and gifted Rockets power forward in the second year of a promising NBA career to the victim of a senseless crime lucky to be alive.

"I would say I'm blessed," Landry said. "God's arms of protection were around me. I could be in a different situation. It could be worse. It's just life."

Less than two months later, he is never better. He had 16 points and nine rebounds on Thursday, becoming a symbol of the Rockets' ability to overcome adversities as varied as tough losses or a gunshot wound.

"I look at it like, I was shot in the leg, but I was only out six games," Landry said. "Some guys have really been through adversity, like Yao (Ming), who hasn't played a full season. Dikembe (Mutombo), in his last season, is missing one of the greatest runs of his life. I look at it that they're missing 10, 20, Tracy (McGrady's) missing 50 games. I only missed six.

"I know people look at it as, ?Oh, he got shot.' I look at it as it could have happened to everybody and it could have been worse."

Target of mockery

He was, however, initially shaken by the incident. He spent a week recovering in Houston and another with his family in Milwaukee.

When he visited the team's morning walk-through the day after the shooting, walking with crutches and sweating heavily, his teammates applauded.

By the time he returned to practice, they offered their version of therapy. They mocked him.

Mutombo's booming voice called him "Tupac," after the slain rap star and actor, Tupac Shakur.

Teammates chided Rockets player security director Butch Grant, who sits with Landry on flights and often is his dinner companion on the road. "We kept telling Butch, ?Where were you, man. You're supposed to secure our team,' " Shane Battier said.

Back in the groove

Landry passed on the Rockets' offers to give him therapy, an idea he now finds laughable. "What for?" he said. Instead, his teammates brought him back in the way typical for these Rockets when facing any obstacle. They were goofy.

"He went through a pretty life-altering experience," Battier said. "The best thing that we did is once he got back, we integrated him to the team pretty quick. We treated him as always. That was the best way to regain normalcy.

"He quickly became the butt of the jokes. Carl was making jokes at his own expense. The first day Carl came back to practice, his line was, ?Wagon, Wagon (the nickname for Chuck Hayes), they tried to get me man, they tried to get me.' "

Assailants still free

From that day forward, Landry said, he put the incident behind him.

"You laugh," Landry said. "You move on. Having my teammates around, guys around me and who are my family helped a lot. After a week, I forgot all about it. I don't even know what leg I got hit on. It's over."

He has since moved to Pearland and plays with a protective sleeve over the wound on his left leg. Otherwise he and his teammates said that nothing has changed.

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has directed the organization to work with the HPD to offer a financial reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those guilty of the crime, Rockets CEO Tad Brown said.

Landry, however, said he was concerned with the Lakers, and thankful to have had that chance.

"Who cares?" he said. "Life goes on. The world isn't going to stop."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com