The Los Angeles Lakers showed why they’re the defending NBA champions during Sunday’s 120-102 blowout in Houston. On Tuesday, thanks to the NBA’s revised scheduling policy to minimize travel, James Harden and the Rockets will get an immediate chance to make amends.
What remains to be seen is what Harden’s supporting cast will look like. Starting small forward Danuel House Jr. will miss another game, though the explanation has now shifted from back spasms to the league’s new health and safety protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, starting point guard John Wall (migraine) and sixth man Eric Gordon (left lower leg tightness) are each listed as questionable.
In postgame comments, the Rockets (3-5) cited leaky transition defense, subpar shooting, and excessive turnovers as reasons for Sunday’s poor showing, and those are the themes that head coach Stephen Silas was working to correct at Monday’s practice. Tuesday will put that to the test against the Lakers (8-3), who are title favorites again.
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Dating back to their best-of-seven series in the 2020 playoffs, which the Lakers won 4-1 in the second round after losing Game 1, the Rockets have now lost to the Lakers in five straightgames. Could they finally be due for a breakthrough versus LeBron James and Anthony Davis?
James and Davis are each questionable with a left ankle sprain and right adductor strain, respectively. But since they each played Sunday after the identical pregame designations for the same injuries, it seems more likely than not that they will again play on Tuesday at Toyota Center.
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The lines, courtesy of BetMGM
- Point spread: Lakers -5.5 (-110), Rockets +5.5 (-110)
- Moneyline: Lakers -225/Rockets +180
- Over-under: 221.5 (-115 O, -105 U)
- Player O/U Scoring Props: James Harden 30.5 (-115 O, -110 U), Christian Wood 20.5 (-110 O, -110 U); LeBron James 25.5 (-105 O, -120 U)
Place your legal, online sports bets in CO, IN, MI, NV, NJ, PA, TN, and WV at BetMGM.
From NBA.com’s game notes, projected starters for the Lakers are Dennis Schröder, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Marc Gasol. Meanwhile, Houston is expected to counter with James Harden, John Wall, David Nwaba, PJ Tucker, and Christian Wood.
Advice and prediction
In Harden’s last four games after returning from a sprained right ankle, he’s averaging 17.8 points on 39.7% shooting (27.3% on 3-pointers). That’s approximately half of the 35.3 points per game figure that Harden averaged over the previous two seasons, and on reduced efficiency.
“The Beard” is still leading the Rockets with 11 assists per game over that stretch, but Houston probably needs Harden to recapture his dominance as a scorer to have a shot versus the defending NBA champions. That could especially be the case if Wall and/or Gordon, who rank No. 3 and No. 4 on the team in scoring this season, are missing.
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One potential betting strategy could be to parlay the point spread with Harden’s over/under number, because there should be a correlation between the two. If “The Beard” has another subpar scoring game on Tuesday, it seems likely to point to success for the Lakers.
On the other hand, if he exceeds his 30.5 number, that could be what Houston needs to beat the point spread and keep the game close. We’ll go with the optimistic scenario, because Harden should be due. (Then again, we also took Harden’s over on Sunday, and that didn’t work out.)
Prediction: 112-109, Lakers
Get more betting analysis and predictions at Sportsbook Wire.
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