The Los Angeles Lakers versus the Houston Rockets. It's one of the more intriguing matchups because, believe it or not, with a win, the Lakers dig themselves out of the eighth seed and win the seventh seed, facing the San Antonio Spurs instead of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. However, with Jeremy Lin and James Harden likely on the floor, the Rockets might have the advantage in this one. Check out the predictions for this game as the Lakers face the Rockets in the last NBA game of the season.
The Lakers did well without Kobe Bryant in their previous game and they faced the second place Spurs. Tony Parker was useless, but Tim Duncan was active and played a solid game. The Lakers still have a superstar in Dwight Howard, however, he's not a ball handler. The problem with the Lakers is that they need somebody who can either shoot from the outside and get defenders to bite on the perimeter shot or somebody with handle to get past defenders and attract attention from Howard.
Steve Blake did this to the Spurs in their game. He scored 23 points, had four assists, but committed four turnovers. Howard was able to finish the game with 26 points for the game-high. Defending Howard will be second-year man Omer Asik. He's averaging a block a game, but physically speaking, Howard has the advantage.
Out on the open floor though, the Rockets seem to have the advantage. Harden and Lin will handle the ball, sharp shooters Carlos Delfino and Chandler Parsons can connect from three and then Asik cleans the boards. The Rockets are young, they're fast and they run. There are five players in L.A.'s roster that were already professionals when most of the Rockets' roster was still in junior high school or high school; Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Metta World Peace, Antawn Jameson and Bryant have more than 10 years in the league.
The Lakers have been on a tear as of late posting an 8-2 record in their last 10 games of the season. Kobe was healthy for nine of those games. Both teams will be playing motivated basketball. The Rockets would rather play the Spurs than the Thunder while getting pleasure of possibly eliminating the Lakers from playoff contention and L.A. is playing because they do not trust their fate in the hands of the Utah Jazz, who are wrapping up their season against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Rockets are 45-36 while the Lakers are 44-37. A Laker victory ties their records and their season series. However, because the Lakers have a better conference record, they would take over the seventh seed in the division.
Predictions: Will the Lakers win the seventh seed? No. Only way they do so is if Howard can score 40 points. It will seem more than likely that the Lakers will need help from Memphis in order to make it to the playoffs in 2013.
Lin is a Laker killer. He somehow rises to the occasion against L.A. In their last meeting, he dropped 19 points with five assists and four steals in the game.
