NBA - 821 Washington Wizards @ 822 Los Angeles Lakers
Projected Line: LA Lakers by 12 points
Both Nene Hilario and Emeka Okafor are banged up and these are terrible news for Washington. This is especially true tonight, as they will have a rested Dwight Howard, who will completely overpower the Wizards's frontcourt tonight. After being an elite defensive team throughout most of the season, the lowly Wizards are now starting to struggle in areas where they hadn't struggled until recently. Their pick and roll defense is a real example of that. They were a top defensive team on this area during the first half of the season, but they are already #19 in the league on pick and roll ball handler defense with 0.80 PPP allowed for the season and with 1.16 PPP allowed on their last five games! In fact, the whole struggle began exactly during the All Star break, as they are allowing 0.97 PPP to their opponents on this kind of plays since the break! As they will be facing the Lakers tonight, a team that uses a lot of pick and rolls, I expect Washington's defense to struggle a lot tonight, allowing the Lakers to have a good offensive game tonight.
On the other side, Washington is coming from a road win in Phoenix, but where their offense was just terrible. They attempt a very low number of shots near the basket and so, they are super dependent from their 3pts shooting. If this was working well for them on their span of home games, with Martell Webster being red hot, the same isn't happening on the road, where they shot 6-15 3pts twice on their last two games. Considering the fact that Dwight Howard will prevent the Wizards from scoring close to the basket tonight, Washington's offense will depend from their perimeter shooting and this isn't going to work well for them tonight. Therefore, I expect an easy win for the Lakers tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 822 Los Angeles Lakers (-8,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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