{"id":713185,"date":"2026-04-18T12:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713185\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T12:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T12:54:18","slug":"no-5-rockets-at-no-4-lakers-game-1-preview-prediction-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713185\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 5 Rockets at No.4 Lakers Game 1: Preview, Prediction, Odds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fifth-seeded Houston Rockets and the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers start their 2026 Western Conference first-round series on Saturday in what should be a hard-fought tug of war. The Lakers, who will be shorthanded probably throughout the series, have been one of the best teams in the league since the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/02\/15\/2026-nba-all-star-game-smashing-success\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">All-Star<\/a> break.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the Rockets joined the Lakers as one of the hottest down the stretch.<\/p>\n<p>No. 5 Rockets at No.4 Lakers Game 1: Preview, Prediction, Odds and Fantasy Picks<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/lakers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles<\/a> and Houston were in a battle for seeding positions down the stretch. The Lakers (53-29) ultimately secured the fourth seed, going 7-3 over the last 10 games, including their final three. As a result, the Lakers finished one game ahead of the Rockets. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">\u00a0Luka Doncic<\/a> (hamstring) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Austin Reave<\/a>s (oblique) don\u2019t figure to be available in the series.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/rockets\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Houston<\/a> (52-30) went 11-4 over the last 15 to assure itself of a top-6 spot. The Rockets, who won nine of ten, were expected to be one of the top teams in the conference. But Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams suffered season-ending injuries. VanVleet didn\u2019t play at all this season, while Adams last played in April. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Kevin Durant<\/a> is the Rockets\u2019 only true injury concern as he is dealing with a right knee contusion.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers defeated the Rockets 2-to-1 in the regular season. However, the Rockets outscored the Lakers 327-320 over the three games. The Rockets took the first game of the series on Christmas Day (119-94), though the Lakers won the last two games, 100-92 and 124-116.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles leads the all-time series 152-91. This is the 10th time that the Lakers and Rockets have met in the playoffs. The Lakers have won six of the previous nine series, posting a 24-16 record in the 40 games. The Lakers have won four straight postseason series against the Rockets, though their last meeting was in the NBA Bubble.<\/p>\n<p>Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers Game 1<\/p>\n<p>Game Time: 8:30 p..m. (ET)<\/p>\n<p>Place: Crypto.com Arena<\/p>\n<p>Line: -5.0 Rockets<\/p>\n<p>Over\/Under: 207.5<\/p>\n<p>Money Line: Rockets -215, Lakers +180<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Kirby Lee, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fifth-seeded Houston Rockets and the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers start their 2026 Western Conference first-round series on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1307,1013,7,938,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,6,88920,1012],"class_list":{"0":"post-713185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-kevin-durant","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-lakers","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-lalakers","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-losangeleslakers","21":"tag-luka-doncic","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-nba-playoffs-preview","24":"tag-rui-hachimura"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116425815838167529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713185","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=713185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}