San Antonio Spurs at L.A. Lakers Betting Odds
Opening Line: Spurs +4 / Lakers -4 O/U 193
Time: 10:30 PM EST Monday February 8, 2010 on TNT
Tonight in La La Land in a Western Conference match up of a couple teams that are each coming off a win the defending champion L.A. Lakers host the San Antonio Spurs. Many thought that the Spurs would challenge the Lakers in the West this season, but that has not happened yet, as the Spurs have been a little bit of a disappointment. The Lakers are 7-3 in their last 10 games and lead the Pacific Division by 8 games over the Phoenix Suns while the Spurs are in 2nd place in the Southwest Division only 1.5 games back of the Dallas Mavericks.
This season the Lakers are 24-4 at home and 23-28-1 ATS and the Spurs are 10-10 on the road and 24-24-1 ATS.
Both team played and won on Saturday, as the Lakers beat the Portland Trailblazers 99-82 and the Spurs beat the L.A. Clippers 98-81.
The Lakers have won 4 straight games against the Spurs at home.
The Lakers beat the Blazers on Saturday without their leader Kobe Bryant, who may miss his 2nd game in a row tonight with an ankle injury.
Bryant is averaging 28.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 4.6 assists per game this season, and if he can't go the other Lakers will have to pick up the scoring slack.
Kobe is also the best defensive player the Lakers have and the Lakers' guards will have to step up against the Spurs' backcourt of Tony Parker (16.8 ppg) and new stud George Hill (11.1 ppg).
Hill is averaging 17.1 ppg on 50.8% shooting while starting the last 10 games and he dropped 22 on the Clippers on Saturday.
The Lakers have a better frontcourt with the 7-foot duo of Pau Gasol (16.9 ppg 10.8 rpg) and Andrew Bynum (15.1 ppg 8.2 rpg) and the Spurs have to play good D in the paint on these guys and not let them dominate the boards.
Tim Duncan (19.5 ppg) has struggled in the last 2 games against the Lakers only combining for 31 points.
One of the main reasons the Spurs have not been the elite team that many though they would is that off-season addition Richard Jefferson (12.2 ppg) is scoring around 7 fewer points then he did last season.
San Antonio is 2-10 ATS in their last 12 road games against teams with a home winning percentage of greater than 60%, 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games against teams in the Western Conference, and has an Under record of 5-1 in their last 6 road games.
L.A. is 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games, 1-4-2 ATS in their last 7 games against teams with a winning record, and has an Under record of 7-2 in their last 9 games against teams with a winning record.
San Antonio is 1-4 ATS in the last 5 meetings in Los Angeles and in the last 4 meetings between these 2 teams in L.A. the total has gone Under.
Our Selection : Bryant missed the Lakers last game a victory 99-82 in Portland on Saturday. He's questionable for tonight, so without having confirmation on his status we're going to only give our opinion on this game. San Antonio held the Lakers to only 85 points at home earlier this year. However, the Spurs are not the Spurs of the past who used a stiffling defense to beat teams. San Antonio is allowing 96.2 points per game overall this season and have allowed over their season average in 6 of their last 8 games. Opinion - Take the Over
Future Betting Odds
NBA Handicapping
Orlando Magic at Boston Celtics 5-28
The Magic have won 2 games in a row in this series and look to tie the series tonight, as the Boston Celtics hosts Orlando in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Magic have got back in this series and look to become the first team ever in the NBA to come back from a 3-0 deficit. The Celtics are small 3.5 point favorite at Bodog tonight when they try to close out this series at home.