Kalshi promo code<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe odds for Game 1 of the series favor Houston by 4.5 points on the road. <\/p>\n
HOU vs LAL Game 1 Odds<\/p>\n
Back when they were considerably healthier, the Lakers won two of three against Houston in the regular season, including both games in Houston. <\/p>\n
LAL vs HOU Playoff Series Schedule<\/p>\n
Unlike recent years, the full first-round schedule wasn\u2019t released all at once. So far, only Game 1 between the Rockets and Lakers is scheduled. The series opener will take place on Saturday, April 18, at crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles at 8:40 pm ET\/5:40 pm PT on ABC. <\/p>\n
Lakers vs Rockets Regular-Season Results<\/p>\n
Why is Houston such a massive favorite?<\/p>\n
Because the Lakers are dealing with a massive injury crisis. Not only is Austin Reaves out for the season, but Luka Doncic is dealing with a hamstring injury that is likely to keep him out of the first round. <\/p>\n
HOU vs LAL Team Stats<\/p>\n
The Rockets finished the regular season with a better O-Rating (117.4 vs 116.9) and better D-Rating (112.3 vs 115.7), and consequently a considerably better Net Rating (+5.0 vs +1.2). <\/p>\n
Lakers vs Rockets Prediction<\/p>\n
The Rockets finished the season on a tear, going 9-1 in their last ten games. The two games they lost to Los Angeles this season were largely due to the exploits of Doncic. Luka had 36 points on 14-of-27 shooting in the March 16 win, and a 40-burger (plus 10 dimes) two days later. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a virtual certainty that Doncic will miss the entire first round, which is going to place inordinate pressure on 40-year-old LeBron James at the offensive end. <\/p>\n
The Lakers went 10-8 without Doncic in the regular season (both SU and ATS) but had a -1.2 point differential in those 18 games, compared to a +2.5 differential in 64 games with their leading scorer. <\/p>\n
When the Lakers miss shots, they\u2019ll have an immensely difficult time getting second chances. The Rockets finished the regular season with the best REB% in the NBA (54.5%) while the Lakers were just 13th (49.8%). Houston\u2019s 54.5 REB% is the highest ever in a single season since the NBA started tracking it in 1996-97. Only one other team (2014-15 OKC) had a REB% over 54%. <\/p>\n
The Lakers might squeak out a game, but it\u2019s hard to see this depleted roster taking more than one against a Houston team that\u2019s playing like a title contender. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets will meet in the first round of the 2026 NBA playoffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-709700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116398007019286733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}