HOU Rockets at LA Lakers

The LA Lakers will play host to the Houston Rockets in the opening night of the 2014/2015 NBA season, with odds as high as 3.50 for the struggling giants.

Houston, the visitors, are in pretty much the same shape as last season, despite losing point guard Jeremy Lin to today`s opponents, the Lakers. Houston had a solid preseason, including 2 wins in the last 2 games, the last one a 96-87 success over NBA champions San Antonio Spurs. The main focus for the Rockets in the pre season was to improve defensively, as the coach said, and it seems they managed to do so. Ok, pre season is not the best indication, but to hold opponents under 90 points in all the last 4 games has to mean pretty much (especially with the Spurs and the Warriors involved). On the other hand, Houston did not break 100 in the last 4 games either. Houston is pretty healthy for today, so no worries here.

Bet on HOU Rockets at LA Lakers with the best NBA odds offered by Pinnacle.

The Lakers look set to another horrible season after a disaster run last year, even though many things have changed. Kobe Bryant is back and he is sure to have a huge impact, Boozer and Lin are nice additions (+ rookie Randle), but Gasol is gone, Nash got injured again (most likely career-ending) and most of the other guys are just not up to standards. Henry, Young, Ellington and Kelly are unavailable for Los Angeles. The hosts hired Byron Scott as coach this summer and he has implemented his well known defensive, slow-tempo style. The team is not scoring too much and aside from some bad nights they are usually able to hold opponents under the 100 points line  (did it in 4 of 8 preseason games, while they broke the 100 line in just 2 of 8 games). LA was 3-5 in the preseason.

The Lakers might end up better than expected this season with Kobe back, but even so against Houston they have to be considered serious underdogs. It could be close though, and most importantly it should be an underish game. Houston was and still remains a run & gun team to some degree, but they lost the speedy Lin and have woked intensively to improve defensively, with obvious results in the preseason. Lakers on the other hand are all bout defense and have almost zero offensive weapons right now aside from Lin and Kobe. Expect LA to play a slow tempo at home, challenging the 24 second shot clock, while Houston`s defensive improvements along with their slower pace showed in the preseason should contribute to an under. The point line is very high at 205,5 points, so my tip here is the under, probably with a narrow Rockets win to go with it. Prediction: HOU Rockets @ LA Lakers 100 – 95.

Pick: under 205,5 points
Odds: 2.02 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 9.18
Event date: 29 October