As all of you know, I am a huge Dodgers fan, but am also a Lakers fan. The Lakers are not as important to me as the Dodgers, but I still like them.

Sadly, the team has been terrible lately, and while they believe they have improved a lot over their miserable prior season, I think the team is still going to be horrendous.

Among the factors working against them:

- The team is terrible defensively. This was also seen last year, as the scores of some of their games looked like All-Star games (148-130 variety)

- Kobe isn't what he used to be. He's 36 years old, but his body has a lot of wear from both injury and 18 years in the NBA. He isn't going to be able to carry this team, and in fact may be a detriment to it if he hogs the ball and still thinks he can play like he did 10 years ago.

- Julius Randle, one of the few X factors who could have made a surprising impact on the team, is out for the season

Note that I'm not listing Steve Nash above, because the team is actually better off without him.

Anyway, Tuesday's line was Houston -6, and the game was a blowout. Final score was 108-90, but the Lakers were down over 20 most of the way.

I think the lines (and the public) might be too favorable toward the Lakers because Kobe is back this year, not yet realizing that 2014-15 Kobe is a different player than the Kobe of old.

I am also considering hammering the over because the Lakers defense is worse than I think is generally acknowledged, though I'm afraid if they get blown out enough times, they won't cover the over on those games.

As sad as it is as a Lakers fan, I think I am going to just keep betting against them until the point spreads adjust to their (lack of) ability.

What do you guys think?