Houston clearly remains a team that will neither get a taste of playoff air nor make a big appearance in the future. However, I deliberately picked them for today’s Rockets Lakers tip.
The Texans have a promising young squad, which Dennis Schröder is extremely good for in the build-up game – even if the bottom line is that they have only won one of the last fourteen NBA games.
But most of these defeats predated the German’s trade. I also believe the home side can do something against these tumbling Lakers, even if they do the German bookmakers don’t seem to want to know anything about it.
In my eyes, the Lakers are a shadow of themselves and are only kept alive artificially by an outstanding LeBron James. But even this could not prevent that Lilac-Yellows have now lost five of their last six games.
Russell Westbrook, meanwhile, will probably be out until the end of the season, with a lot of resentment from the fans, which he recently made public. An early return of Anthony Davis is also out of the question.
As a result, I actually assume that the Rockets could ultimately prevail against a heavily weakened starting five of the Californians. The home advantage will certainly not play a subordinate role.
