Orlando Magic at L.A. Lakers Betting Preview

Opening Line: Magic +6.5 / Lakers -6.5 O/U 202

Time: 10:30 PM EST Monday January 18, 2010 on TNT

Tonight in a match up of last year's NBA finals the L.A. Lakers host the Orlando Magic. The Lakers have won 2 in a row, are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and are in 1st place in the Pacific Division with a 7.5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns. With the Magic's recent struggled they have fallen out of 1st place in Southeast Division for first time in a long time. The Magic have lost 2 in a row and are only 4-6 in their last 10 games.

This season the Lakers are 22-3 at home and 18-22 ATS and the Magic are 12-10 on the road and 19-19-2 ATS.

In their last games the Magic lost to the Portland Trailblazers 102-87 on Friday night while the Lakers crushed the L.A. Clippers 126-86 also on Friday night.

The Lakers have won 17 of their last 18 games at home and are tied with the Cavaliers and the Nuggets for the fewest home losses this season (3).

A couple of the reasons the Magic have been struggling is Dwight Howard (16.8 ppg) has not looked like his Superman self as of late and Vince Carter (17.1 ppg) simply cannot shoot the rock. Howard has scored fewer than 12 points in 7 of the last 11 games after only doing that in 7 of his first 29 games and Carter is only averaging 6.8 ppg on 19.6% shooting in his last 5 games.

Even though the Lakers have been banged up this season they are starting to get healthy and they recently got Pau Gasol (17 ppg) back after missing 6 games due to a hamstring injury.

A key match up tonight will be at the C position between Howard and Andrew Bynum (15.8 ppg). If Bynum can keep Howard from having a big game scoring and on the boards the Lakers will be in good shape.

Kobe Bryant (28.8 ppg) will get his points, but the Magic have to keep the other Lakers from having big offensive games.

Bynum, Gasol, Ron Artest (11.8 ppg), and Lamar Odom (9.7 ppg) have to help Kobe out on offense tonight.

Jameer Nelson (11.8 ppg) and Rashard Lewis (14.3 ppg) have to knock down some shots from the outside so the Lakers do not drop down in the paint to contain Howard.

Orlando is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games, 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games, and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 road games against teams with a winning home record. L.A. is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games, 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite of 5.0-10.5, and 6-13 ATS in their last 19 against teams in the Southeast Division. One interesting trend is that the Lakers are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 Monday games.

Our Selection : The Magic swept the Lakers in the regular season last year but have struggled on the road this season with a 12-10 record. Orlando is coming off back to back one sided road losses and will be playing their 4th and final game of their west coast road swing. That being said we think that Orlando will use last year's playoff embarrassment (knocked out in 5 by the Lakers) as motivation and go home with not only a ATS win, but possibly a SU victory. Take the Magic +6


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