Boston Celtics at L.A. Lakers Betting Odds


Opening Line: Celtics +3.5 / Lakers -3.5 O/U 189.5

Time: 10:30 PM EST Thursday February 18, 2010 on TNT

Tonight in La La Land the defending champion L.A. Lakers host the Boston Celtics in what is still one of the biggest rivalries in sports. While many NBA teams pulled the trigger on big trades these 2 teams did not make any deals even though the Celtics have discussed bringing in Knicks' PG Nate Robinson. For the Lakers, if it is not broken why fix it? The Lakers have the best record in the West and have won 4 games dating back before the All Star break. The Celtics are coming off a win, but are still only 5-5 in their last 10 games.

This season the Lakers are 26-4 at home and 25-29-1 ATS and the Celtics are 18-9 on the road and 19-31-1 on the road.

Both teams won their last games on Tuesday night, as the Celtics beat the Sacramento Kings 95-92 and the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 104-94.

Kobe Bryant (28 ppg) is questionable for tonight's game, but to show how deep the Lakers are they have won their last 4 games without their superstar in the lineup.

Taking Bryant's place in the lineup has been Shannon Brown and in Tuesday's game he had career highs scoring 27 points and grabbing 10 boards. In the 3 previous games the high scorers were Ron Artest, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. As you can see even if Kobe can't go tonight the Celtics can't breath easy.

The Celtics have lost 8 of their last 12 games on the road, but did win in Sacto on Tuesday night.

Kevin Garnett (14.2 ppg 7.4 rpg) and Kendrick Perkins (11 ppg 8 rpg) have to play well on both sides of the court giving the Celtics some scoring and playing good D on the Lakers' frontcourt of Gasol (17.1 ppg 11.2 rpg) and Andrew Bynum (15.2 ppg 8.2 rpg).

The Lakers have to play solid perimeter defense against 2 of the Big 3 of Ray Allen (16 ppg) and L.A. native Paul Pierce (18.6 ppg), who has averaged 27.1 ppg and 5.7 rpg in 10 career games in the City of Angels against the Lakers.

The Celtics will have to win this game with their defense, which ranks 1st in the league in points allowed (93.7 ppg), as their offense only ranks 18th in the league in scoring (98.7 ppg). That is no easy task against a Lakers' squad that ranks 5th in the league in scoring (103.2 ppg).

Boston is 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 games, 1-4 ATS in their last 5 road games against teams with a winning home record, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 games.

L.A. is 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 home games, 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games against teams with a road winning percentage of greater than 60%, and has an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 games.

Boston is 8-2-1 ATS in the last 11 meetings against the Lakers.

Our Selection : The Lakers have fared well during Kobe's absense winning all four games SU and going 3-1 ATS. Without Bryant's scoring punch LA relied on a staunch defense to hold opponents to under 87 points per game. That figure is nearly 10 points under the Lakers season avearge. Kobs doesn't look like he'll be ready to go tonight, so we expect LA to once again come up big defensively. Celtics averaging only 94.4 PPG in L5 and have gone under the total in their L4. Take Under 189.5 points.


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