Houston Rockets to take on Los Angeles Lakers tonight – NBA Preview
The Houston Rockets will travel to the Staples Centre tonight to face the Los Angeles Lakers at home.
The Rockets will be entering the Staples Center with confidence, coming into the game with a win over the Chicago Bulls. Houston have a chance to improve their standing in the Western Conference. They are currently tied for the
7th place with the Denver Nuggets, 2 wins behind Dallas Mavericks.
The Rockets are coming into this game having won five of their last 8 games. The loss of Kyle Lowry was a big blow for the Rockets this late in the season and their playoff bid seemed to be in trouble. However, Slovenian Goran
Dragic shook Houston and the entire NBA. He has been nothing short of incredible and in the last three games, Dragic has averaged 22.7 points and 6 assists per game, while shooting 62.5% from the field. He will be the key for Houston as they face the Lakers.
The Houston defense will be largely reliant on Marcus Camby. Marcus also seems to be in good touch, scoring an average of 9.6 points and hauling down12 rebounds in his last three games.
The Lakers are also hot at the moment, having won four games in a row and 7 of their last nine. Kobe Bryant, unsurprisingly, has been the influencing factor. In his last three games, the Black Mamba scored 31, 24 and 40 points,
while being on fire both from within and beyond the arc.
Andrew Bynum will also be a big factor. He had a monster game against the Los Angeles Clippers where he scored a season high 36 points. Pau Gasol struggled against the Clippers but is still averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds in
his last three games.
The Lakers and Rockets have played each other twice before this season, with the Lakers winning the January 3rd game 108-99 and Rockets taking the March 20th game 107-104. Bryant had 29 points, but shot 37%
from the field in the loss to the Rockets. He was defended well by Chandler Parsons and tonight’s contest between the two will also be a good one to watch.
"I played good D. I was right there in his face" said Chandler Parsons after that game.
Bryant has scored a total of 66 points in the 2 matches against the Rockets. Bynum has contributed 37 points and 29 rebounds while Luis Scola has been the top scorer for the Rockets against the Lakers with 43 points.
Friday night’s game will be crucial for the Rockets as the race for the final 2 spots in the western conference is getting tougher as the season nears end. There are six teams in the West apart from each other by only 3 wins.
Tags: