NBA - 503 Los Angeles Clippers @ 504 Los Angeles Lakers
Projected Line: 205 points
The Lakers showed once again their in-game consistency problems on their last game against Phoenix. I remember that the Lakers blew a huge lead at Phoenix, then they almost lost at Minnesota and at Detroit, even though they had double digits leads at one point in the games, while on the other side, they were down by 20 points at one time at Charlotte. This time, on their last game, they got outscored by 9-24 against a struggling Phoenix team during the third quarter. However, I have to say that this game the Lakers's in-game struggles on their last game have a decent explanation, as they were in a horrible spot by coming back home after a long road trip. This is why I took the Suns last Tuesday.
For tonight, the Lakers have a good spot with a home-home spot and one day off to rest. I expect Kobe Bryant to have a better game tonight than his 1-8 FG and 8 turnovers performance against the Suns. They will be facing a Clippers team, who will be playing their fourth game in five nights! The bad news for the Lakers is that the Clippers quickly crushed the Rockets yesterday, who were playing without James Harden, by outscoring them 46-28 in the first quarter. The game had a very low intensity level and the Clippers were able to rotate their players very well due to their great roster depth.
It's clear that the Clippers will have a tremendous edge over the Lakers in terms of second unit, so maybe this poor spot of the Clippers for tonight isn't a big deal for them after all. Chauncey Billups seems to be the team's starting SG from now on and with Jamal Crawford backing him up, this is some great news for a Kobe Bryant bounce back game tonight, as Billups is far from being at his best right now with an evident lack of lateral speed, while Crawford's defensive skills are pretty much non-existent.
Unlike the game between the Thunder and the Heat, this game will be played at a fast pace because the Clippers's gameplan for tonight will be exactly to push up the pace to wear down the Lakers. It's clear that the Lakers have been reaching the final stage of their games with little energy. The Clippers's biggest strength is probably their second unit, whose style is to attack in transition and crush the paint, so Coach Del Negro's gameplan for tonight will be run a lot and make sure the Clippers's superior depth wears the Lakers down. With this mindset from the Clippers, this game will definitely be a fast paced contest.
We already know about the Lakers's problems in transition defense and in stopping the dribble penetrations from their opponents, so the Clippers's offense will be on fire tonight with Chris Paul crushing the Lakers's defense with his pick and rolls first against Steve Nash and then, his backup Eric Bledsoe using his great speed to expose the Lakers's slow footed guards with quick transition plays.
On the other side, I expect a big game from Kobe Bryant, who will have a favorable individual matchup against Chauncey Billups and Jamal Crawford. The Lakers's outside shooting is a bit streaky, but against the Clippers's defense that will gamble on the defensive end in order to look for steals and highlights plays, I expect the Lakers to have a decent outside shooting game tonight.
The first two games between these two teams this season ended with 200 and 209 points scored and both games were fast paced contests. I expect the same to happen tonight, with both teams reaching the 100 points mark, therefore I'll be taking the Over in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 503/504 Over 199 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5Dimes
No comments:
Post a Comment