NBA Premium Play 03/12: Los Angeles Lakers @ Orlando Magic

NBA - 555 Los Angeles Lakers @ 556 Orlando Magic

Projected Line: 210 points

This game is getting some media hype, as it will be the first time that Dwight Howard will play at Orlando after getting traded to the Lakers. I expect this game to be a shootout. Orlando's defense has been terrible lately and the Lakers's offense have several edges that they will explore tonight. With Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris on the frontcourt, the Magic are allowing their opponents to shoot over 70% FG at the rim, so we can expect a fired up Howard to have an impressive offensive showing tonight. Also the Magic's perimeter defense has been awful, as they are now #27 on the league on pick and roll ball handler defense by allowing 0.85 PPP! That's good news for the Lakers's offense, who is very efficient on this kind of plays, just like any team coached by Mike D'Antoni! They are #4 on the league with 0.84 PPP, with 0.92 PPP on their last 10 games!

On the other side, I also expect Orlando to have good offensive numbers as well. Jameer Nelson and Arron Afflalo are now healthy once again and their speed can be a big factor tonight against the slow footed backcourt defense of the Lakers. We can expect Coach Jacques Vaughn to implement an uptempo game plan for Orlando to avoid Howard's domination down low. One important factor that will work for us in tonight's game is the fact that this game will have a ton of free throws! If you remember, the Magic won at LA by 113-103 in early December and one of the key factors for their win was their hack-a-Howard strategy that Vaughn implement. This caused Howard to attempt 21 Free Throws! I'm sure that Vaughn will do the same tonight and so, the final quarter of tonight's game will have a lot more possessions that usual, something that will give more opportunities for both teams to score. We have all the right ingredients for a very high scoring game in here, so I'll be taking the Over tonight.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 555/556 Over 206,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Betonline