Lakers News: Latest On Tonight's Starters, Betting Odds Vs. Clippers
Against their Crypto.com neighbors the Los Angeles Clippers, your Los Angeles Lakers will be trotting out the same five starting players who looked pretty terrible together in L.A.'s 123-109 defeat to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. Jovan Buha of The Athletic reports that Darvin Ham's tiny perimeter triumvirate of Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley, and Lonnie Walker IV, none of whom stands taller than 6'4", will be joining All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the frontcourt.
A peek at where Los Angeles's various rotations rank in NBA.com's very-helpful Lineups page after a single regular season game may not mean a whole heck of a lot, but it does suggest some interesting trends. Namely, guess which lineups fare best? Lineups with taller small forwards, and/or more floor spacing!
The starting five with the best net rating, albeit in just two minutes together on the floor, saw Russell Westbrook at the point, Walker at shooting guard, 6'7" sharpshooter Matt Ryan at small forward, LeBron James at power forward, and Anthony Davis at center. In three minutes together, the team's starting five posted a -38.1 net rating.
On the opposing end, this newly-healthy Clippers club boasts perhaps the NBA's single-deepest roster, led by All-Star forwards Kawhi Leonard (who will be coming off the bench) and Paul George. Even though tonight's a "home" game for the Lakers at the two teams' shared downtown Los Angeles digs, the Clippers will most likely flatten a shooting- and defense-challenged Lakers team still trying to find its optimal lineup configurations.
So let's look beyond a possibly depressing end result and carve out the most intriguing gambling odds for tonight (where such activity is legal, of course), shall we?
The Clippers' 5-Point Spread
BetOnline lists the Clippers as five-point favorites tonight. After seeing how easily the Golden State Warriors decimated the Lakers even after the Dubs had a relatively underwhelming first half, I'd take that over.
The Battle Of L.A.'s Combined Game Score
DraftKings has set the over/under on the two teams' combined game score at 226.5. Given the pace of modern play and the Clippers' array of scoring weapons, we'd say take that over.
Prop Special - LeBron James And Anthony Davis Going Nuts
A fun prop bet has been proposed by DraftKings. Should LeBron James and Anthony Davis each score 30 or more points apiece, bettors could benefit in a big way. On Tuesday, James cleared this mark, while Davis scored a bit beneath it. Now that they've seen how little they can count on their teammates, this writer wonders if the dynamic duo will go all-in on stat-padding tonight in what will most likely be a losing effort no matter what they do.
