{"id":9957,"date":"2010-10-26T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T18:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=9957"},"modified":"2010-10-26T09:28:25","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T14:28:25","slug":"nba-betting-preview-houston-rockets-at-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-houston-rockets-at-los-angeles-lakers-9957\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers
\nTuesday, 10\/26\/10, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles Lakers -7.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles Lakers -7.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 196.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 196
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Los Angeles -325 \/ Houston +275<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant has his eyes set on a third-straight NBA title<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston was busy during the offseason after posting a 42-40 last year and missing the playoffs for the first time in four years.\u00a0 The Rockets will welcome back center Yao Ming tonight in his first regular season game since breaking his foot in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers on May 8, 2009.\u00a0 \u201cI am very excited,\u201d Yao said.\u00a0 \u201cI am just looking forward to playing a great season.\u00a0 I think I can count on my foot now.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s been stated that Yao will not play more than 25 minutes on any given night this season and the team signed Brad Miller to backup the superstar.\u00a0 Both were limited in the preseason, which allowed Jordan Hill to play extensively at center, giving the coaching staff a look at him at that position.\u00a0 The team is 36-36 ATS as an underdog the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Rockets will now have a full season to get things in order with a new-look roster, after acquiring Hill, Jared Jeffries and Kevin Martin on February 18 of last year.\u00a0 Houston also added guard Courtney Lee during the summer.\u00a0 Head coach Rick Adelman hopes a younger, more athletic roster can help in lowering the amount of games that players miss during the season.\u00a0 \u201cI like our depth all the way through,\u201d said Adelman.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody should have to play 40 minutes.\u00a0 We have quality guys coming off the bench.\u201d\u00a0 Point guard Aaron Brooks is expected to be the leader of this team, coming off a breakthrough season that had him garner the NBA\u2019s Most Improved Award.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is ready to start a run for a third consecutive title and the team will watch the franchise\u2019s 16th championship banner raised on Tuesday night at Staples Center.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re confident in ourselves,\u201d said Kobe Bryant.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not a guy and we\u2019re not a team, that worries about what other people are doing.\u201d\u00a0 The Lakers return nine players from last year\u2019s squad and added a few pieces to freshen up the roster.\u00a0 Los Angeles added free agents Matt Barnes, Steve Blake and Theo Ratliff during the offseason.\u00a0 Head coach Phil Jackson assumes the bench and will try to complete his fourth three-peat in his incredible coaching career.\u00a0 He has won 11 titles and has a .705 regular-season winning percentage.\u00a0 The team is 101-106 ATS over the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Lakers took last season\u2019s series from the Rockets 3-1 after sweeping the 2008-09 season series for the first time since 2001-02.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 8-2 against Houston in the last 10 meetings and holds a 13-8 all-time advantage at Staples Center.\u00a0 Under Jackson, the team has posted an impressive 27-11 mark against Houston in 38 regular-season meetings.\u00a0 Bryant has averaged 26.7 points per game in 46 career games (41 starts) versus the Rockets.\u00a0 For the 18th time since moving to Los Angeles, the Lakers will be opening the regular season at home.\u00a0 In those games, the Blue and Gold have compiled a 13-4 record.\u00a0 Overall, Los Angeles is 35-15 in 50 regular season openers.<\/p>\n

Bettors will find that the Rockets are 6-14 ATS in their last 20 games as a road underdog, while the Lakers 21-10 ATS in the last 31 meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday, 10\/26\/10, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles Lakers -7.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles Lakers -7.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 196.5 Current Total:\u00a0 196 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Los Angeles -325 \/ Houston +275 Houston was busy during the offseason after posting a 42-40 last year and missing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3625,831,67,3343,939,3626,3624,3342,3627,290],"class_list":["post-9957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-brad-miller","tag-houston-rockets","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-matt-barnes","tag-phil-jackson","tag-rick-adelman","tag-staples-center","tag-steve-blake","tag-theo-ratliff","tag-yao-ming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9959,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9957\/revisions\/9959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}