Beastin'

By J.A. Adande for ESPN.com Without being noticed, Ariza does the little things for Lakers:

"For all the stat geeks, Ariza had a plus/minus of +34 Sunday night. Put
that in your web browser and click it. Good things happen when Ariza is on the
court, even if he doesn't always get his name called over the loudspeakers when
the play is finished.

"He's like a ghost out there," Jackson said. "Like a shadow. Just all of a
sudden he shows on a screen, he's gone. He's a blip and he's away."

Ariza even tried to slip out of the postgame locker room, waiting until a
crowd gathered around Andrew Bynum before moving around the reporters and
flashing a "peace out" sign to the big center, until Lakers public relations
director John Black reeled him in.

"Come here, Trevor," Black said. "You can't play that well and leave."

No, you can't have eight points, eight rebounds, three steals and three
assists in 25 important minutes without coming in to explain yourself, even if
it's just elaborating on Jackson's stealth description.

"I'm the type of player, I like to be sneaky," Ariza said. "That's how I
get most of my steals, hiding behind guys and at the last second jumping in
front. I try to be a team player. Whatever the team needs me to do to help us
win." "

Wow man the Lakers are on a roll. They seem almost unbeatable. After a pretty terrible first quarter they just couldn't be stopped and they had defensive answers for everything the Rockets tried. I think I'll be attending a parade in about 7 months!