It looks like it might be the end of the road for the Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff hopes as they cling to a small chance of making the postseason. The Lakers are 4-8 SU in 12 games since their savior LeBron James returned to the lineup and now have to face a hungry Denver Nuggets squad that has lost three games in a row.
The Nuggets opened as 4.5-point favorites with a total of 222.5.
STANDOUT STATS
- The UNDER has hit in the Nuggets’ last six games (avg. combined score: 220.6) and has hit in eight of their last nine overall.
- The Nuggets may be an excellent spread bet at home but have been awful on the road at 12-18 ATS and have failed to cover the spread in 13 of their last 18 away games.
- The Lakers are allowing 121.8 points per game since LeBron returned from injury (13 games), which ranks 29th.
- The Nuggets have lost four straight games at Staples Center by an average margin of 9.5 points.
- The Nuggets are allowing 109 points per game at home and on the road but it’s their offense that takes a hit away from Denver. They average 116 points in home games but only 107.1 points in road games this season.
- The Lakers are 2-6 SU and ATS in eight games as a home underdog this season. However, one of those wins was against Denver back in October.
My Best Bet for Nuggets vs Lakers
Nuggets -4.5
This one almost seems toooooooo easy because the Lakers are a mess and will be without Kyle Kuzma and possibly Brandon Ingram. The Lakers need all the firepower they can get against a tough defense like the Nuggets and although it may seem like a hater thing to say, LeBron looks checked out. The chances of making the playoffs are slim to none and the effort level has not been there to even beat chumpy teams like the Suns or Clippers.
There are too many negative performance stats for the Lakers to trust them to keep this game within five points. Even when they’ve won since LeBron came back, it wasn’t convincing or it took an insane set of circumstances to pull out the win (ahem...Celtics game). The Lakers have failed to cover the spread in their last six games and I see a seventh coming tonight at Staples Center.
