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Los Angeles Lakers vs Houston Rockets Amidst the daily trade discussions swirling around Kobe Bryant and the Lakers this preseason, coach Phil Jackson is upset at his star player's level of commitment. "Obviously he hasn't thrown his heart and soul into performing on the floor," Jackson told reporters after practice Saturday. "That hurts me a little bit. … He was going to work at this thing and [would] put his full being into this. Right now, he's having a hard time doing that."
Clearly Bryant disagreed with his coach's assessment. "That [should be] the least of his concerns or anybody's concerns," Bryant said. "You don't have to worry about that. … I'm ready to play. Period. You don't have to worry about me." The Lakers might need another big night from Bryant on Tuesday, as they'll be without their second-leading scorer from last season. Lamar Odom will miss the opener after undergoing shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in May. He was hoping to be ready for the beginning of the season, but could miss the first two weeks to complete his recovery. "I know Lamar's anxious to play, and he wanted to play in the opening game, but the consensus is to give him a little more time," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. Kobe Bryant will be in the Lakers' starting lineup tonight for their season opener against the Houston Rockets. Kwame Brown will be their starting center, matching up against Houston's 7-foot-6 Yao Ming (but according to covers.com Brown is injured and will miss this game) The Lakers did not practice Sunday, so all eyes today will be focused on Bryant and his sprained right wrist. Rockets The Rockets should rapidly get an idea of how much work remains. After tonight's opener, they go to Utah to play the Jazz, the team that eliminated them in the postseason. After Saturday's home opener against the Trail Blazers, they face the Mavericks and Spurs in a back-to-back. "We have enough talent to match up with any team in the NBA," James said. "It's just now chemistry, getting a feel for one another and playing the game the right way. There's a lot of potential, and there's a lot of excitement. We understand what is at stake, and we understand we're probably in the strongest conference in the NBA. We have to start off good. This month, October through the end of November is going to be a test for us. We have to start making a statement, now." Rockets forward Shane Battier began his post-practice routine the way he always does, with shooting drills culminating with free throws. He does not leave the court each day until he makes 10 consecutive free throws and once he has his 10, he keeps shooting to see how far he can take his run. Sunday, once he started shooting free throws, he had a long wait to stop, making 120 consecutive free throws before missing and ending his day
Line
These are the same issues oddsmakers are considering when setting lines for Los Angeles’ first few regular season games. Books now have the Lakers as 4 ½-point home underdogs for their season opener against the Houston Rockets this Tuesday. “We're talking about one of the biggest stars in the game,” says Las Vegas lines consultant Peter Korner. “It has a chance to get worse before it gets better. For opening night, we'll see where the number goes and it'll take a couple games to see where the Lakers are.” Professional handicapper David Malinsky believes the shaky state of the franchise is setting back the Lakers growth as a team. He says this is a time in which they should be coming together – not falling apart. “Once the schedule begins there is not a whole lot of time for teaching and making major adjustments, so you need to be doing the things right now that are going to carry you through the next six months,” says Malinsky. Betting overview Houston to cover handicap is most picked wager today. Line dropped from -3 to -5.5 and it's only second time in last 3 seasons when Houston is so heavy favorite in Los Angeles. These teams have one hot trend telling that favorite is 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings. So looking into situation in Lakers camp Houston to cover is most logical pick. But we should not forget that's it is NBA and not Euroleague. Everything may happen here starting from Kobe Bryant 50-pts performance or his trade to Wizards or Bulls before the game. And it's hard to predict true situation in Lakers and how they will perform against much stonger and motivated Rockets with Yao, Tracy, Scola, Battier, Francis and others. I think that Houston have really good chances to win this game because Kobe's form is still under question, Lakers don't have size to defend against Yao, and have no weapons in defense to stop Tracy. Also Houston bench is better and have better scoring ability. All in one Houston have excellent chances to win this game but public picks are always risky especially in the beggining of the season when most teams have many problems with new schemes. But according to my estimation Lakers today simply don't match up Rockets and should experience seriuos problems on both ends of the floor. My prediction Houston to win this one by 7-12 points. I will try Houston handicap but with small stakes because it is to early to enter NBA with high stakes. Expected score: Lakers 94 - 105 HoustonPick: Houston (-5) @ 1.90 Bet365.com 3/10.San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trailblazers Without Oden and many missing I hardly see Portland playing good against San Antonio in their season opener. It's true than Portland coach was forced to change his team game plan to uptempo game plan but we should not forget that San Antonio is not a running team and they know that their have better chances to win this game in low-tempo physical game. I expect Spurs to control boards and to dominate against Portland today. More of that San Antonio managed to cover 13.5 handicap in 4 of last 5 games in San Antonio against Portland. I am tending to take SA handicap but I don't like so high handicap especially now while coach still have much work to do to find best rotation. Expected score: SA Spurs 102 - 87 Portland Golden State Warriors vs Utan Jazz I think story will continue today.. Uptempo run-and-gun basketball waits us. I hope that both teams will find their shooting today and small-ball rotation will help these teams to score over 214.5 points. But honestly speaking over/under line don't have any value because it's only a start of the season and many players are not so hot as they were in the last year playoffs. Be careful with this game. Utah in my opinion have good chances of winning this game because GS Warriors don't J.Richardson now and without him they struggled many times last year. So everything is probable here.
Expected score: GS Warriors 106 - 113 Utah Jazz
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