Lakers News: Vegas Favors Clippers Ahead Of Battle Of Los Angeles
Tonight, your Los Angeles Lakers will square off against the "visiting" Los Angeles Clippers, in yet another installment of the "Battle of LA" that pits two not-quite-arch rivals who share the same mailing address against each other.
When both teams were reinvented over the summer of 2019, the NBA media world at large expected that the Lakers and Clippers would be duking it out for supremacy not just in LA, but in the Western Conference, en route to very possible league titles.
The Lakers' core of LeBron James and Anthony Davis found success immediately, winning the championship in a pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. The Clipper got as close as the Western Conference Finals in 2021, but a Kawhi Leonard ACL tear during that playoff run hurt their chances, and the fell to ex-Clipper Chris Paul and his Phoenix Suns.
How the mighty have fallen. Last year, neither team made the playoffs. This season, both are just hoping to avoid the play-in tournament (well, first the Lakers need to actually have a good enough record to make the play-in tournament, but with Davis expected back soon, that feels likely).
Though the Lakers looked woefully outmatched in the two teams' previous encounters this season, both Clippers wins, the returns of Thomas Bryant and Dennis Schröder to LA and the psychotic competitiveness of one LeBron James have improved the baseline quality of this club. The Lakers might be underdogs tonight in Las Vegas (via Action Network), but I'm not so sure they should be -- assuming LeBron James, who is questionable yet again with a sore left ankle, actually plays.
The Game Spread
The Clippers are favored to win by five points. Heading into tonight's matchup, the Clippers have actually won their past nine meetings with the Lakers, who last vanquished Kawhi Leonard and co. during that charmed 2019-20 championship season. Even without Anthony Davis, I think that could change tonight at Crypto.com Arena, in front of a sea of Lakers fans (do the Clippers have actual fans, Clipper Darrell aside?). Both teams are bringing two-game win streaks into tonight's contest, but the Lake Show has been the hotter club of late, having gone 6-4 in its last 10 (compared to a 4-6 run in the same stretch from the Clips). Take the Lakers to at least cover.
Russell Westbrook's Combined Points + Rebounds + Assists
The line for the $47.1 million LA reserve guard is set at 31.5 today. In six of his last 10 games, he would have covered the spread, but his off-night offensively in Portland Sunday (he was pretty good on defense) makes me hesitate here. I'd take the under.
