The team that leads after the first quarter has won each of the first six games.

Poor starts doomed the Lakers in Games 4 and 6, road losses in which they never led after falling behind 26-9 and 21-3, respectively. They're hoping energy from their home crowd helps avert a similar start in Sunday's do-or-die Game 7, which the Lakers must win to avoid one of the most shocking playoff upsets in franchise history.

"You can't give a good team like that, a playoff team, that kind of spread," LA's Lamar Odom said. "When you put yourself down by so many points early in the game, you're unable to make a mistake. Everything has to go right for you to reclaim the lead."

Dissecting what went wrong in the opening six minutes of the previous night's loss was a primary focus of Friday's lengthy film session run by Coach Phil Jackson. The Lakers missed their first eight shots and didn't manage a field goal for nearly six minutes, a stretch that seemed even longer because Houston's Luis Scola was having his way down low on the other end of the floor.

While the Lakers offered little in terms of an explanation for their early ineptitude, a look at the film provides a few hints. Three turnovers in the opening four minutes helped fuel the Rockets' surge, as did Pau Gasol hoisting 17-footers instead of exploiting his size advantage in the paint, and Kobe Bryant settling for contested jumpers instead of driving to the rim.

"What they saw was the difference between the type of shots Houston was getting and the type of shots we were getting," Jackson said. "A lot of their shots were in the paint and a lot of our shots were outside the paint. And the ones we did get in the paint were either contested or we got taken down or fouled. That was the kind of message they needed to see and hear."

There was one piece of good news for the Lakers : The NBA rescinded the technical foul assessed to Bryant in the second quarter of Thursday's game after he knocked Ron Artest out of his way near the top of the key.

The technical would have been Bryant's fifth of the playoffs. Players automatically receive a one-game suspension when they pick up their seventh in the postseason.

Bryant was visibly frustrated during Houston's opening surge, barking at teammates to show more effort during a timeout after the Rockets had stormed to a 13-1 lead. That venom apparently carried over into halftime when Jordan Farmar said Bryant lit into teammates in the locker room.

"Kobe was vocal," Farmar said. "He was a little frustrated, a little disappointed. He's a competitor; he wants to win and he wants to advance to try to put another trophy up in that room. He was the one speaking more than anybody."

Bryant's speech sparked a 16-2 Lakers run to start the second half, rallying LA within two before the Rockets regained control. Jackson was asked if his team can capture that fired-up feeling before Game 7.

"We've played exceptionally well on our home court," Jackson said. "We feel good about our chances to come out and play with the type of energy we've maintained throughout the year, except for the first Houston game."

Note: Thursday's Game 6 was the most watched Basketball game ever on ESPN, drawing 7.35 million viewers.

Reach Jeff Eisenberg at 951-368-9357 or jeisenberg@PE.com