It has been said of the Los Angeles Lakers all season that their greatest weakness might be their overconfidence, that they were at times too sure of themselves for a team that hasn’t won a title. Even in winning 65 games in the regular season and taking care of the Jazz in five games, Phil Jackson’s squad has seemingly fallen in love with “flipping the switch” to turn up their intensity.

After Game 1 against Houston, that confidence may no longer be a hindrance: the Lakers’ sense of self-belief will now become a vital asset for them if they are to forget this performance and recover over the next 48 hours.

That confidence might be all that gets them through against a team whose swarming cross-matches and constant doubling of the ball will continue to give the Lakers fits for the duration of the series.

While the Rockets defense is to be praised, it goes without saying that they won this game on the back of their franchise player and his total control of LA’s frontcourt at the other end.

Simply put, Yao Ming had his best playoff game ever in what was the biggest contest in which he has ever played.

It was not just his 28 point and 10 rebounds, but how, and when, he collected those tallies that mattered most. This was a star rising to the occasion. This is why he was the first overall pick all those years ago. This was a gritty, inspired ball game from Houston’s leader.

After the game, Phil Jackson mused that he wasn’t sure that his team could play much worse and he isn’t far off. Los Angeles put up a pathetic 92 points while connecting on only 11% of their threes. That is a far cry from the dominant offensive force this team has been all season.

The main culprit for this shortfall: Kobe Bryant. As much as Michael Lewis and Daryl Morley would like you to believe it was Shane Battier’s defense that set Bryant up for his confounding shooting night, it’s simply not true. He did shoot just 8-22 when Battier was defending him, but this does not tell the whole story.

There is no Kobe stopper, just ask Ruben Patterson. The only person that can shut down Bryant is Bryant. And Monday night, that is exactly what he did. He took rushed, forced shots that never came in the flow of the offense.

In not attacking the net and getting the free-throw line, Bryant made his own job infinitely harder than it needed to be. He became nothing more than a volume shooter, more akin to Allen Iverson circa 2001 than Kobe Bryant circa 2009. Sure, he got his 32 points, but he needed 31 shots to get that done.

Another three performances like that and the Lakers will see their season come to an abrupt and inexcusable halt.

Other troubling signs for LA ran throughout the game as well: Josh Powell played nearly as well as Andrew Bynum; Yao found no resistance on the way to the rim and got every Laker big in foul trouble; Jordan Farmar hit his first big shot in a month and then disappeared again; Derek Fisher looks just about done and was abused by an inspired Aaron Brooks; and Pau Gasol never found any sort of rhythm and was totally out of sync on offense.

All of that said, the Lakers’ can still find some consolation is the fact that they were far from their best, yet still had a shot at this game. In spite of their terrible spacing and forced one-on-one, they were in the game until the end. In that way this game had shades of Game 3 of the Utah series where nearly everything went wrong for LA and they still had opportunities at the end of the game to win.

Game 2 goes Wednesday night, and Los Angeles needs more than Bryant trying to feel his way out through the game. If Yao is going to hold up his end of the superstar bargain, then Bryant and Gasol must do the same.

Hats off to Houston: it’s Los Angeles that now has a problem.