Rockets vs. Lakers, 8:30 ET
Rockets vs. Lakers, 8:30 ET
Of all the series in the first round, this has to be the most exciting. There are a number of angles on this that you can take, and to make it crazier, we don’t really know how good or available certain guys will be. For the Lakers, they are still without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Dealing with a major injury at the start of the season, the Rockets now look to make the playoffs after being eliminated in the first round. This is more than just a match between Kevin Durant and LeBron James as Rockets take on the Lakers.
Arguably, the person with the most to lose in this series is Kevin Durant. Durant, the star sharpshooter, has looked good this season and is the go-to scorer Houston desperately needed a season ago. However, the team was no better than last year and the team definitely lacked a point guard to guide the team. Fred VanVleet’s injury may not have seemed devastating at the time, but I think it hurt them more than most people realize. The team still finished 22 games over .500, and the middle brackets weren’t separated by much, so two games could have made this a home series for the Rockets instead of going on the road. Ime Udoka will enter the series as a favorite, and probably a deserved one. After losing to Golden State last year Rockets due this year.
William Navarro-Imagn photos
It sounds crazy, but LeBron has to win this series. Look, he’s 90 years old and accomplished pretty much everything in basketball. If he retires at the end of this season (he won’t), it would be a bad look to lose again in the first round. He has lost the past two seasons in the first round of the playoffs, barely making it to the series in either. The Lakers are just a few years away from making the Western Conference Finals. The team is very different now and James is usually a third option. But with Reaves out, he needs to produce at a high level. If Doncic is out, the team toasts anyway. Doncic returned to LA on Tuesday, but I don’t really believe he will be back for the series. Even if he is, I don’t think he would be used for 35-40 minutes. He was playing phenomenal basketball before he got hurt, so maybe he’ll give it a shot.
Even if Doncic can pull it off, I think there will be a strong possibility that he is reserved or a bit of a decoy. He’s not much of an impact player in defense already, so unless he’s 100%, he’s probably more of a liability. But once the adrenaline kicks in, who knows? The Rockets are playing some strong basketball and Durant will give them the push they need to at least get out of this series. Give me Houston -5.5 in this one.
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