| Lakers fans optimistic that Kobe Bryant’s return will lead to a drastic improvement from last season’s 27-win performance shouldn’t look to Las Vegas for reassurance. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook posted NBA season win totals on Tuesday, opening the Lakers at a still rather paltry 31.5 wins. “It’s a very aging team with a lot of question marks about their health,” Jeff Sherman, assistant manager at the SuperBook, told The Linemakers on Sporting News. “Kobe can say he’s fine, but he’s missed all that time and it’s going on over a year. He’s more prone to get injuries, and he’s going to be on limited minutes. ... “Carlos Boozer’s going to be a starter, and he’s definitely at the end of his career, so there’s not much to be expected out of him. Basically, a lot of names people recognize but all off in the sunset of their career (Steve Nash included).” In fact, the usual OVER money on the Lakers may not even come this year, even with the win total set at such a modest number. “We saw (action on Lakers OVER) last year, but I think people will be a little bit more hesitant to just blindly pull the trigger on it. They were anticipating (last year) we were going to be around .500 on them and we opened at 34.5. It was one of our larger decisions, and it went UNDER, and people got frustrated with them.” Back home again Vegas bookmakers had a blueprint when it came to posting a win total on the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers, who brought LeBron James and Kevin Love into the fold this offseason. “We had the Miami project over the last four years to kind of get a basis for this,” Sherman said. “It’s very similar circumstances. The Heat were always in the low 60s, and we made (the Cavs) a tad lower (58.5) because this is the first year for these guys to be together, and you expect them to take some time to get some chemistry. So it wasn’t that hard (to set this number).” Going south in the West? Three Western Conference teams that made major strides in the standings last season are forecast to come back to earth a bit this year. The Rockets won 54 games last season, but open at 49.5 wins on the SuperBook’s board. While they lost Chandler Parsons and Jeremy Lin this offseason, Sherman points to the schedule. “That division (Southwest) is like the SEC – it’s the best division out there. Those teams playing each other have such a tough go of it each night, so it’s going to be difficult (for Houston). Dallas is going to be right there. Memphis in the second half of the year came on. You know what the Spurs are. It’s just a really difficult division.” Why were the Blazers and Suns, meanwhile, posted with significantly fewer wins (48.5 and 42.5, respectively) than they finished with last season? “Here’s your easy answer on that,” Sherman said. “Those two made two of the larger jumps (last year) and anytime you get something like that, there’s usually an elasticity effect where it comes back a bit.” Ups and downs in the East The Bulls, with the return of Derrick Rose, open with a win total of 55.5 wins....The Wizards are anticipated to improve, with 49.5 wins posted as their number....The Knicks are forecast to improve, too, but still not finish above .500....With the injury to Paul George, the Pacers are expected to fall off in a big way....The SuperBook took an early wager on OVER 15.5 on the 76ers and adjusted Philly's win total to 16.5. See the full list of NBA win totals posted at the SuperBook right here at The Linemakers on Sporting News. | 
