So, in addition to widespread misbehaving and the glory of LeBron James, we've noticed several teams demonstrating the ability to rally in the smirking face of work-force adversity. Through Sunday's postseason calendar, three one-game suspensions have inspired a next-game victory from each of the disadvantaged teams.

We've also witnessed short-term success for teams that have been compromised by seemingly crippling injuries.

Before allowing the winning teams to take a bow, we first must recognize the psychological shenanigans attached to the teams that lose to these short-handed foes. Actually, the psyche jobs run both ways. Inform a team that it's doomed after losing a key player and just watch everyone else muster up the game of their lives.

And the mere suggestion of having a manpower advantage often is enough to provoke disaster in the team with a presumed advantage.

Anyway, our roll call for this phenomenon begins in Houston, where the Rockets pole-axed the Los Angeles Lakers in their first game without injured center Yao Ming. Instead of accepting what qualifies as an appalling lack of inside power to match a relatively imposing Lakers front line, the Rockets used quickness, ball movement and goose-bump motivation to forge a Game 4 rout and knot the series at 2-2.

It should be noted that the addition-by-subtraction theory has been at work in Houston since alleged superstar Tracy McGrady opted for season-ending knee surgery. With T-Mac and his shot-clock-bleeding tactics dressed in civilian clothes, the Rockets simply began running their offense through the 7-foot-6 Yao, whose ability to make shots created double teams and clean looks for his hard-working pals.

Not lost in this dynamic was Houston's first playoff series victory since way back when gravity began taking its toll on Michael Jordan.

OK, while exploiting a quickness advantage against the Laker big guys turned out really swell, don't expect Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson to avoid making sufficient adjustments to swing this series back to his favor. And when that one-game blitzkrieg is forgotten, it would be nice to have a skilled 7-foot-6 dude to play through.

Speaking of the Lakers, they weren't half bad during the one-game wrist slap assessed against veteran guard Derek Fisher. For the record, I didn't refer to Fish as a point guard because he is not a point guard. Well, he is assigned the point guard on defensive shifts, but advancing years have made him less capable of staying between slippery dribble-oriented opponents and the teeth of the Lakers' defense.

Fisher, you may recall, was banned from Game 3 after unloading a timely (if being amazingly stupid can be timely) blow that sent would-be Houston screener Luis Scola to the fetal position in Game 2.

Well, sure, Scola had been committing several acts that violated the letter of NBA law, but going nutty and earning a suspension can really put your team in a bind.

But for Game 3, it really didn't.

That's because Fisher — a shooter who also doesn't have the skills or burden related to operating as a real point guard on offense — was replaced by a much more capable on-ball defender. That would be Jordan Farmar, who had been all but dismissed from Jackson's rotation during the opening-round series with Utah.

With Farmar witnessing most of Game 1, Houston point guard Aaron Brooks made half of his field-goal attempts and busted the Lakers for 19 points. With Farmar and his defensive chops resurrected for Games 2 and 3, a more closely monitored Brooks missed 15 of his next 23 shots, sliced into the lane less frequently and the Lakers prevailed.

Even with Farmar playing a bit more than Fisher in Game 4, Brooks went berserk and put 34 on Los Angeles. So if Farmar was so important on defense, what gives?

Well, let's go back to the absence of Yao, which inspired Rockets coach Rick Adelman to use more on-ball screens for Brooks; anyone with casual interest in NBA tactics realizes that Jackson almost always requires the player defending the screener to slouch back without sacrificing rebounding position. This puts an even greater burden on the defender guarding the ball.

Howard was saluted with a one-game ding, missing Game 6 in Philly.

Instead of mailing it in and returning to Orlando for Game 7, the Magic brought Howard sub Marcin Gortat away from the block on offense and used driving-lane space to send the Sixers to the driving range.

Without Lee, Orlando managed a split in its first two Eastern semi-series games in Boston, where point guard Rafer Alston — the guy brought in to replace injured All-Star Jameer Nelson — spun the headband of Celtic Eddie House while it was stretched around Eddie's head.

That warranted a one-game exile that turned into a Game 3 victory for the Magic in Orlando.

Without a point guard to create open threes on drive-and-kick maneuvers, Orlando's wing players took it upon themselves to drive to the bucket. Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu combined to shoot 15 free throws off these attacks, and the usually trigger-happy Magic used this inside-out tactic to make half of their more-reasonable 18 3-point attempts.

Unfortunately for Orlando, nobody was tossed from Game 3 and suspended for Game 4, which resulted in Boston winning Sunday night to even the series.