Tracy McGrady: "Sit, Kobe, sit"

"Good boy."

Last night, NBA TV carried the Rockets-Lakers game and was rewarded with an incredible finish by one of the game's brightest stars. But the real story of the game was the effort of the Houston supporting cast.

Playing without Yao Ming, the Rockets hung close to the Lakers before bursting ahead by nine in the third quarter. Giving T-Mac a much needed rest from the last two minutes of the third through the first three of the fourth, the lineup of Moochie Norris, Luther Head, David Wesley, Juwan Howard, and Dikembe "Who wants to sex" Mutombo somehow stretched the lead from 6 (62-56) to 12 (71-58).

The impressive effort of that group of castoffs and rejects might have been the highlight of the game, except that once McGrady picked up his fifth foul with six minutes left and Mutombo dislocated a finger, the Rockets were forced to go with Norris, Head, Wesley, Howard, and Swift. Any Rockets fan knows that the downgrade from Mutombo to Stromile Swift is roughly equivalent to the drop-off from Natalie Portman in "Garden State" to Natalie Portman in "Star Wars." Pretty steep. Still, with LA already making enough of a push to make pleasantly bored courtside stick figure Mischa Barton perk up, this motley crew only lost two points off their six point lead until McGrady came back a few minutes later.

These guys can't win a game without T-Mac, but it was nice to see the Rockets fight through a tough stretch with a couple different five-player combos featuring zero players who would start for the Mavs, Spurs, Pistons, or, heck, the Lakers.

And if you can't start for the Lakers, should you really be on an NBA payroll?