Both the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers enter their Christmas Day game on two-game losing streaks. The Lakers are returning home after a four-game road trip (though one of those was against the Clippers are thus more of a home game) and the Rockets are concluding a six-game road trip that none of us ever wish to speak of again.
The Rockets are in a mini-slump, and if the team doesn’t start winning again soon it could get ugly. Losses to the Pelicans and Kings on this road trip were difficult to swallow, especially with large leads late in both games. The Clippers game is easily the low point of the season to this point, with Houston never competitive in the second half and hardly looking interested in trying to get back in the game. The defense has looked bad all season, and it’s starting to look like Dillon Brooks might be a max-level player based on how he can turn a defense into a tenacious monster. Houston misses him and Fred VanVleet dearly right now.
The Lakers are, of course, the Lakers. LeBron James isn’t the player he once was, but he can still be that player for stretches. The team has been handed over to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the latter of whom is going to be looking for a maximum contract himself in free agency this summer. It isn’t the tastiest free agency class this summer, but the Lakers could give Reaves a lot of money, bring back James on a short deal, and sign some other pieces to short deals. That would free them up to make trades or wait until 2027 to sign some of the bigger potential free agents like Nikola Jokic or Giannis Antetokounmpo. They’re the Lakers, so you know they’ll get someone great, somehow.
For the first time all season, Dorian Finney-Smith is listed as “questionable” for this game. Clearly, the team has been looking at this game as a potential return date for quite some time. On the Lakers side, Doncic is questionable but is slated to debut his newest sneaker so…he’s not actually questionable.
Luka Doncic: “GTD” (he’s playing
The Line (as of this post)
Looking ahead because we can
Saturday night at home (it’s allowed!) against the Cleveland Cavaliers