Tonight will be the first night that the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets have met since the “fight game” on October 20th where Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo and Brandon Ingram all received suspensions as a result. Since then, the Rockets season has been in a downhill tumble. They are currently 12-15 which makes them the 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference, the only team behind them being the 4-24 Suns. Meanwhile, with Rando and Ingram injured and James averaging the most points per game since the 09-10 season while playing on the fewest average minutes of his career, the Lakers have improved to 17-10 after a slow start. Currently they are only 1.0 game behind the Western Conference leading Warriors and Nuggets. In this contest the 5.5 point underdog Lakers will look to stay hot on the road because despite the Rockets inability to pick up wins, James Harden is still averaging 30 points and 8.8 assists per game.
With Clint Capela in an offensive slump with only 12 or 13 points in his last three games and James Harden a very expensive fantasy pick, Chris Paul ($8,200/38.02 FPPG) offers fantasy players an alternative. Even though he only scored 11 points in his last game, his passing and assists helped propel him to his first triple double of the year, finishing with him scoring 50.2 fantasy points. Despite his inconsistency in shooting, his passing and rebounds have certainly stayed steady so he still offers fantasy players the potential for high fantasy points especially if he can get his scoring back on track.
Kyle Kuzma ($7,900/29.91 FPPG) certainly seems to have been on a streak lately. In the Lakers last game against Miami, Kuzma played for 39 minutes and scored 33 points, the second highest points total for his season. Since the beginning of December he has averaged 25.0 points per game and has four games where he has played above 30 minutes. He also has above 39.0 fantasy points in every one of his December matchups, making him a solid choice for players that are looking for a value pick that has lots of potential and a high ceiling for fantasy points.
The landscape on the court is much different for this game than the last time these two teams faced off. The Lakers have picked up the pace and improved a lot since their 0-2 record at the time and the Rockets season is in a downward slump. In this Western Conference matchup, fantasy players will be looking less for brawls and more to take advantage of Lebron’s average points being the highest in 8 years, Kyle Kuzma’s current streak, James Harden’s 30 point average and Chris Paul’s high assists and rebounds.