NBA Basketball Betting – Rockets vs Lakers
The Houston Rockets travel to Los Angeles looking to boost their record to above .500 for the first time in the young season, and will get a break as they taking on a Lakers team that has struggled to start the season.
Date/Time: 10:30 PM ET, Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Venue: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Broadcast: FSW and NBA TV
Spread: -7.5 Lakers
Over/Under: 192
After losing to Memphis on the road 113-93, Houston returned home and handed the Atlanta Hawks their first loss of the season, 95-84 on Saturday.
Kevin Martin scored 27 points and hit six 3-pointers to lead the Rockets, who despite leading by 14 points early in the final quarter, allowed Atlanta to go an 11-3 run to pull within 79-73 with 5:20 left. But Jordan Hill’s layup and Chase Budinger’s 3-point basket helped Houston regain control en route to improving to 12-1 in its last 13 home games against the Hawks.
Luis Scola had 21 points, Budinger added 17 points and Kyle Lowry matched a career-high with 18 assists for Houston (2-2), which played for the third straight night.
Hill also had a career-best 15 rebounds for the Rockets, who never trailed and led by as many as 12 points in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the Lakers who dropped their first two games of the 2012 season, saw their three-game winning streak come to an end after falling to the Denver Nuggets 90-99 on New Year’s day. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The Lakers defense was miserable, as six Denver players registered double figures in the game and had 26 fast-break points to five for the Lakers.
Pau Gasol had 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Andrew Bynum notched 18 points and 16 rebounds to keep the Lakers in it. Kobe Bryant had 16 points to become the sixth player in NBA history to reach 28,000 career points. However, he did struggle from the field, making just 6 of 28 shots and 1 of 8 3-pointers for the entire game.
The Lakers got back into the game by outscoring the Nuggets 35-25 in the third quarter, including 10 points from Bynum, and then took the lead on 20-foot jumper with 3:44 remaining.
But the Lakers would fall apart as both Bryant and Gasol went for a combined 12 points in the fourth with Los Angeles finishing the game shooting 35-for-88 overall (39.8 percent) and 4-for-23 on 3-pointers (17.4 percent), despite the fact that they outscored the Nuggets 48-46 in the paint.
Free Pick: Los Angeles –
The Lakers are going to have their hands full with Lowry, but if the play good d, they shouldn’t have a problem. I expect Kobe to rebound from a terrible outing, taking it out on the Rockets who are 0-3 on the road.
