Dwayne Bryant | NBA Sides
free pick519 HOU 5.5 (-110) vs 520 LAL
Analysis:
Not an ideal situation for the Lakers. LA is coming home off a long seven-game road trip and they have the look of a tired team. They also have home court advantage wrapped up throughout the playoffs, so motivation is a huge question mark for LA.



Houston has motivation in a couple different ways. First, they're vying for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Houston currently sits in fourth place in the West, which would give them home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. But the second through seventh seeds are separated by just a few games, so Houston could quickly find themselves on the road in Round 1.



This is also a triple same-season revenge game for Houston, as LA has won and covered all three meetings. The last two were Lakers wins in Houston, which cannot sit well with the Rockets. It's been seven years since LA swept the season series from Houston. With Houston coming off a tough road loss at Phoenix on national TV, I expect the Rockets to be ready to put on a better performance on ESPN tonight.



This figures to be a close battle and the situation favors the Rockets, so I'll grab the points with Houston.