The LA Lakers are 1-4 SU and 2-3 ATS since losing leaders LeBron James and Rajon Rondo on Christmas day. To make matters worse, Kyle Kuzma is likely to miss his second consecutive game with a back injury and the lineup that lost to New York on Friday is likely unchanged against the 18-21 Timberwolves.
- The total has gone OVER in 10 straight games for Minnesota.
- LA Lakers is 1-5 ATS in its last 6 games when playing Minnesota.
- Minnesota is 11-5 ATS in its last 16 games at home.
Lakers vs Timberwolves Game Center
Minnesota Can’t Defend the Three
How did Minnesota, a reliable UNDER bet, all of the sudden run off 10 consecutive games to the OVER? One theory is that it is raining threes on top of their defensive players. The T’wolves are the worst team in the league at defending the three-point shot as 37.6 percent of three-point attempts are falling through the hoop.
That will get LA’s shot-happy kids excited as they arrive in the City of Lakes. The Lake Show took the sixth-most three-point attempts in the Association in December at 34 per game, converting on 12.1 per game for a 35.5 percent average. They attempted 37 against the Knicks on Friday and 44 vs Sacramento on December 30.
Total Opened at 232
These teams have played twice this season with the most recent game on November 7 in Los Angeles where the home team won 114-110. The other game in Minnesota was much higher scoring as the Wolves won 124-120 on October 29.
The Lakers have played to more than 232 points just twice in their last nine games, and both of those contests were against the league’s No. 5 scoring offense, Sacramento. However, without LeBron and Rondo to slow the game down, the Lakers have the highest pace in January at 110.8 possessions per game.
Minnesota has the No. 14 scoring offense through the first three months of the season and was actually No. 6 in the month of December with 113.9 points per game – that’s up 7.5 points per game from November.
My Best Bet for This Game
I like UNDER 232 points for this game. If the Lakers had their full lineup, I would be singing a different tune, but without three of their best players, I don’t know that LA can bring enough consistent offense to the table to get this game OVER 232 points. I think we’re looking at more like a 220-225 range for the final score of this one.
