The Houston Rockets seem to be back on track. They were embarrassed with such a bad start to the season, and losses to teams like Brooklyn and Detroit in recent games won't help the psyche any, but the club is 6-2 in its last eight games and is generally starting to look more like itself. The Los Angeles Lakers are on deck on Saturday in a game which shouldn't be close.
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SCHEDULING
The Rockets are coming back from a short East Coast swing and will get a chance to rest for a couple days before the Lakers come to town.
LA wishes it had such a luxury.
Instead, this is the end of an 11-day marathon of road games which has seen the Lakers play eight times. It's also the end of the Lone Star State swing after facing San Antonio on Friday.
Ironically, LA has covered three of its first six games on this roadie, and two of the three have come in its second legs of back-to-back situations.
INJURIES
Jordan Clarkson might end up being part of the future of the Lakers once Kobe Bryant finally hangs up his boots, but he probably isn't going to be a part of the end of this road trip.
Clarkson suffered an ankle injury in Minnesota on Wednesday night and is likely going to be on the shelf at least until the Lakers get back to Tinseltown, if not longer.
Houston's questions are both at the small forward spot, as both Sam Dekker and Trevor Ariza have back injuries. Dekker is out until February. Ariza is questionable for this game.
KEY MATCHUP
The real key here is going to be the Lakers against themselves. This is a team averaging just 97.5 points per game, and that's after scoring 122 in an OT loss in Minnesota.
LA probably won't have Clarkson, so out the door goes 15.3 points per game, and that will probably force guys like Larry Nance and Roy Hibbert to contribute to the scoring effort for a change.
The Rockets aren't anything special defensively, and in fact, they're allowing teams to hit the highest percentage of shots in the league at 47.0 percent, but this really is more about the Lakers than anything else.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
This is going to be such a trite spot, but every now and again, there's a spot that just makes too much sense to pass on.
The Rockets are well-rested and playing better basketball, and they're getting a reprieve here playing against one of the worst teams in the NBA. The Lakers have to be dog tired after this road trip and worn out from playing against the Spurs the night before, and we can't imagine they're going to want to do much of anything aside from just turn around and go home no matter what the result is in this game.
The only way we see LA even remotely making this game competitive is if the Rockets just don't seem to care a lick about the game, and we can't see that happening. More likely is a massive blowout which is long over in the fourth quarter.
Houston 112, Los Angeles 86
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