Projected Line: LA Lakers by 6 points
This is a really bad spot for the Lakers. They had a 3-games road trip on the East at Orlando, Atlanta and Indiana, with their last game against the Pacers being a physically brutal contest. Kobe Bryant was super banged up and he played just for a few minutes, while Dwight Howard was involved in a lot of physical disputes in both ends of the floor. So, no wonder that Howard is struggling physically right now, after such physical battle with the Pacers's powerful frontcourt:
"It's sore since [Friday]," said Dwight. "It hasn't stopped bothering me." He intends to play through the injury, but this is a good reminder that he's always one awkward rebound away from aggravating his existing labrum injury.
The Lakers had just 1 day off to return home from Indiana and prepare for tonight's game. This spot would be problematic for any team, but it's especially tough for a banged up veteran team like the Lakers. Sacramento is a lowly team, they are horrible on defense, but their offense has been at an elite level since the All Star game by averaging an offensive rating of 114.3! In fact, they showed their offensive talent on their last game, where they scored 121 points against the Bulls elite defense! The keys for this offensive improvement are related with their red hot outside shooting (43.6% 3pts since the All Star break) and a demolishing transition game! The Kings have super quick guards who are very aggressive in attacking the basket early on the shotclock. This will be very problematic for the Lakers's defense, who struggles a lot in running back to defense. It's true that the LA team has allowed just 4, 4, 11 and 11 fast break points on their last four games, but that was simply due to the circumstances of those games. Chicago, Orlando and Indiana are teams that don't have on their mindset scoring fast break points (Chicago #24 with 10.2 ppg; Orlando #25 with 9.8 ppg; Indiana #21 with 11.5 ppg), while Atlanta is a potent team on transitions, but they were missing Josh Smith and Jeff Teague on their game against the Lakers and so, they couldn't be effective on transitions. Things will be completely different with Sacramento, who is averaging almost 20 fast break points per game since the All Star break!
The Lakers without Kobe Bryant will struggle to beat the very quick Kings, let alone cover a blowout line. Therefore, I'll be taking Sacramento tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 885 Sacramento Kings (+9.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
No comments:
Post a Comment