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The Houston Rockets were able to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers with a 115-96 win on Sunday, which forces a Game 5 clash in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The Lakers won both Games 1 and 2 at home before securing a road win in Game 3 to go up 3-0. The Rockets will now need to win three straight in order to pull off a monumental comeback in this series, while the Lakers effectively have three chances to win a single game in order to advance to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. 

For this Game 5 clash between the Rockets and Lakers, we've put together a three-leg NBA same-game parlay using the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NBA game 10,000 times before assigning grades and recommendations for different bet types like money line bets, point spread bets, Over/Under bets and player prop bets. If you're interested in betting on the NBA and NBA parlay betting, you need to see what the model's top picks for Game 5 are, including a player prop for LeBron James, who is looking to rebound from a 10-point effort in Game 4. 

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past eight-plus seasons. The model entered the second full week of the 2026 NBA playoffs on a sizzling 25-9 roll (74%) on top-rated NBA spread picks this season. Anyone following its NBA betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.  

For this parlay, we're using one of the model's top player prop picks for James, as well as its lean for the Over/Under and spread. All odds for this parlay are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Rockets vs. Lakers same-game parlay picks

  • Lakers -4.5
  • Over 208.5
  • LeBron James Over 23.5 points

Same-game parlay odds: +596

Lakers -4.5

The Lakers were underdogs in each of the first four games in this series, but they -- not the Rockets -- find themselves up 3-1 in this series with Game 5 being on their home court. Even after a disappointing Game 4 loss, the Lakers have to be feeling good about returning to Los Angeles with a 3-1 lead. The Lakers are 4.5-point favorites in this elimination game, and they cover this spread in nearly 60% of model simulations. L.A. is 48-38 against the spread this year. 

Over 208.5

The first two games of this series went Under this line, but the Lakers and Rockets have cleared this total in each of the last two games. It's worth noting Kevin Durant is expected to miss Game 5 after only appearing in Game 2 of this series, but even still, the model is issuing a 'B' grade to Over 208.5 as this hits in more than 60% of simulations.

LeBron James Over 23.5 points

James is coming off one of his worst scoring performances in a playoff game in his storied career. Sunday was one of just five times James scored 10 or fewer points in a postseason game in 296 career playoff appearances. The veteran forward has had an uneven series in the scoring department with 19 points in Game 1, 28 in Game 2, 29 in Game 3 and then 10 in Game 4. His points prop line is 23.5, and the model loves the Over here with a projection of 26.9. The model rates James' Over at 4 out of 5 stars.