The Lakers are 13-1 SU on the road and just ruined Miami’s perfect home record. Now they face Atlanta, who is 1-7 SU in their last eight home games and hits the OVER often. Despite the Lakers Sportsbook as 10.5-point favorites, the total is the more appealing play.
- Date/Time: December 15, 6 p.m. ET
- Stadium: State Farm Arena
- TV Coverage: Spectrum SportsNet, Fox Sports Southeast - Atlanta
- Sportsbook Odds: Los Angeles -10.5 | O/U 224
- Lakers vs Hawks Matchup Report
Sportsbook Odds Analysis
Los Angeles sports a 23-3 record and is simply dominant on the road, while the Hawks are 6-20 and have one just one of their last eight home games. They opened at 10.5-point favorites and somehow that feels too close. The total opened at just 224 points, in part because Atlanta struggles to score outside of Trae Young and the Lakers have an elite defense, but with the Lakers offense in the top-10 and Atlanta’s defense among the league’s worst, 224 seems quite low.
Los Angeles News & Notes
The Lakers faced arguably their toughest road test yet on Friday, as they travelled to face a Miami team that was 18-6… and 11-0 at home. But as the Lakers have done all season, they found a way to win, squeaking out a 113-110 victory to move to an NBA-best 13-1 on the road this year.
It was the combination of LeBron James and Anthony Davis paving the way, per usual, as they combined to score 61 points. The defense also stepped up, holding Miami — currently the third-best three-point shooting percentage team in the NBA — to just 30.3 percent from behind the arc.
The total has now gone OVER is four of the Lakers’ last five games. As they stay on the road to face an Atlanta team Sunday that really struggles to play defense, chances are this could be another high-scoring affair.
Atlanta News & Notes
Even if Atlanta’s star point guard Trae Young puts up big scoring numbers, the Hawks are still likely to lose this season. But when he goes into a shooting slump — it equals bad news for Atlanta.
Young had his third straight off-game Friday against Indiana, shooting 9-for-30 in a 110-100 loss. He’s shot under 37 percent from the field in each of his last three games, when he’s shooting 44.4 percent for the season, while also failing to top 30 percent from behind the arc; when on the season he’s averaging 37.2 percent.
Sunday will not provide much relief for Young, as he will be taking on the Lakers’ fifth-ranked defense. In addition, the Lakers are a top-ten scoring offense, while the Hawks’ defense is the third-worst in the league; meaning we could see the OVER in play for the ninth time in Atlanta’s last 10 games against the Western Conference.
Betting Pick: OVER 224
The Lakers can clamp down when they need to… but that won’t be necessary on Sunday. They’ll score plenty of points — much more than Atlanta — and should easily hit the OVER.
- Atlanta is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games.
- The Lakers are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games against Atlanta.
- The total has gone OVER in 6 of Atlanta's last 9 games at home against the Lakers.
