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Lakers-Rockets Prediction

After scratching and clawing in a 7 game struggle against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Rockets are on their way to the Western Conference Semifinals to take on the LA Lakers.

Russell Westbrook appears to be fully healthy as the Rockets will be at full strength. Lakers point guard, Rajon Rondo, who suffered a fractured hand in mid-July, is hopeful to return and play in game one.

The anticipation before this series is palpable as four of the game’s biggest superstars (three being former MVPs), and two of the highest scoring teams in the league will square off for a chance in the Western Conference Finals.

Matchup

The Rockets were 2-1 against the Lakers in 2019-2020 including one of their wins coming in the bubble nearly a month ago, 113-97. However, LeBron James did not play as the Lakers had the number one seed locked up at this time as their reserves wound up playing most of the game.

This matchup will be a clash of the styles. The Lakers want to live in the paint with LeBron facilitating and generating offense along with Anthony Davis’s ability to take over the game facing up and playing down low. They are capable of making the three ball with guys like Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Kyle Kuzma as a means of spacing the floor but they’ve been very inconsistent at times and don’t live and die by it like Houston.

In Houston, Russell Westbrook and James Harden dominate the ball with a dose of Eric Gordon, Robert Covington, and Jeff Green off the bench. They throw up more threes than anyone and rely on Harden’s ability to create in isolation.

Neither team matches up particularly well on defense against the other. The Rockets will not have an answer for Anthony Davis. After shipping off Clint Capela before the deadline, they’ve gone full on “small ball,” where players like PJ Tucker, Jeff Green, and Robert Covington will fill that “5” role and try to contain Davis and the Lakers other bigs. The Rockets have the ability to throw a ton of different wings at LeBron, but I still expect both Davis and LeBron to score at will. If the Rockets want to give themselves a chance, they’ll need to contain role players like KCP, Rondo, and Kuzma.

Without Avery Bradley, the Lakers best perimeter defender, they will inevitably struggle to contain Westbrook and Harden. Harden really had his hands full in the first round with Luguentz Dort of the Thunder because of his size, athleticism, and patience. The Lakers don’t have any perimeter defender near his caliber. Expect Alex Caruso to have an expanded role in this series to help try to minimize those guys but the Rockets superstar duo should inevitably thrive.

The Lakers will try to use their size and physicality, dominating in the paint and going with bigger lineups. Outside of LeBron, the Lakers do not have the guard play and sheer playmaking ability like the Thunder and their three point guard system. If Rondo can show flashes of “playoff Rondo” of old and take some of the load off LeBron to help facilitate and enable more playmaking, it’ll be really difficult for the Rockets to overcome the Lakers size. 

Harden and Westbrook will show flashes of dominance as the Lakers don’t have answers individually for those guys but these two superstars haven’t meshed well enough to overcome LeBron and AD.

Prediction

Lakers in 6

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