Kobe Bryant reclined in his chair and grinned, towel slung over his shoulder. Pau Gasol clapped and wiped his brow as he left the game for the final time. And boisterous fans stood and roared, at last secure that they'll be treated to more Basketball in the coming weeks.

It took 13 angst-ridden days and seven clumsy games, but the Lakers finally vanquished the never-say-die Houston Rockets with an emphatic 89-70 victory in Game 7. For the second straight season they reached the Western Conference finals, in which they'll face the rested Denver Nuggets starting Tuesday night at Staples Center.

"In a perfect-case scenario, you just kind of swoop through each playoff series on the way to a championship run, but that's not the reality," Bryant said after scoring just 14 points but contributing seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

"Last year at this time, everyone was pegging us as unbeatable and we got mopped up in the Finals. I'd much rather be the team that's standing at the end of the Finals than right now."

If the Lakers' stature suffered from their inability to put away the injury-ravaged Rockets in five or six games, they're quick to point out that championships aren't won with style points. They may not be the prohibitive favorites against the Nuggets that they would have been when the playoffs began, but they'll have a clean slate and home court advantage.

For the Rockets, the loss was a crushing finish to a season that will be remembered for their resilience. They weathered the loss of one star, Tracy McGrady, to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, then pushed the Lakers to the brink despite losing their other star, Yao Ming, to a foot injury after Game 3.

"These guys (the Lakers ) wanted to win it so bad. I think we just didn't want to mess it up," Rockets forward Ron Artest said. "We were trying to do everything the right way instead of being relaxed and playing."

For Houston, Game 7 was in a hail of turnovers and errant shots in the opening quarter. Fueled by the memory of double-digit first-quarter deficits in Games 4 and 6, the Lakers blitzed the Rockets from the start, opening leads of 13-2 and 35-17 thanks to opportunistic offense and fierce perimeter defense.

Two free throws from Aaron Brooks provided Houston's first points more than five minutes into the game. A layup from Chuck Hayes accounted for the Rockets' first field goal two minutes later. They missed their first 12 attempts and needed five straight baskets to end the game just to raise their field goal percentage to a paltry 36.8 percent.

Brooks led the Rockets with 13 points, but the Lakers did a masterful job throwing bodies at him to wall him off from the basket on the pick-and-roll. Forward Luis Scola, a force in Game 6, managed just 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting.

"We stopped penetration," LA's Lamar Odom said. "We were able to stop Brooks from getting to the hole and we made them take jump shots. They never got on track."

Bryant made just 4 of 12 shots, but the Lakers kept Houston from creeping any closer than 17 in the second half by relying on their big men to exploit the undersized Rockets frontline.

The Lakers blocked 10 shots and outrebounded Houston 55-33. Gasol had a team-high 21 points and 18 rebounds, while Andrew Bynum offered more hope he's emerging from a confidence-shaking start to the playoffs with 14 points and six rebounds.

The lingering question remains: Were LA's struggles a product of unfavorable matchups or a harbinger of future troubles? The Lakers insist they're better because of this series, a wakeup call that taught them some much-needed lessons.

"What we learned from this series is that we've got to be ready to play at the start of every game, on the road especially," forward Luke Walton said. "If not, in the playoffs with how good these teams are, you can be blown out before the game even gets going."

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