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The up and down Los Angeles Lakers host the team with the best record in the NBA in Milwaukee Bucks at Staples Center in a very anticipated match up between two of the best in LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo!
Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have just not had a good stretch of games ever since Christmas really being 10-17 since then, currently out of the playoffs looking in with a below .500 record at 30-31. Lakers are still well within the race for the Playoffs but the time is starting to run out and the Lakers are becoming desperate for wins. The Lakers are coming off a win against New Orleans in their last game 125-119 but to say that they were convincing would be a lie. Lakers biggest issues have been a lack of bench play, and most importantly terrible defense in the past month, in fact ever since one of their top defenders Lonzo Ball went out with an injury, the Lakers have been god awful and have been 27th in DEF RTG since Ball went out on 20th January. Lakers were a top 10 defensive team prior to that date, but their fall has been horrific to say the least on the defensive end. Lakers inability to protect the paint has especially been a big issue and coming up against Giannis this could be trouble for the Lakers.
Play of Ingram and Kuzma has been a couple of positive that the Lakers have entering this game with Ingram averaging 27 ppg since all star break while Kuzma is coming off back to back good efficient scoring nights and it seems like LeBron might be back to his best after an impressive performance on Wednesday. LA has gotten relatively healthy in the past couple of weeks, but Lonzo Ball still remains out and Lance Stephenson is questionable which could be a blow for them if he doesn’t play considering how poor the bench has been performing.
Injury Report
Lonzo Ball – OUT
Lance Stephenson – Questionable
Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks have been by far the best and most impressive team in the NBA this season with a 47-14 record and a 1st seed in the East. Bucks look near unbeatable right now, they’re 12-1 in their last 13 games and that lone loss came to Orlando when Giannis didn’t play, the Bucks have won 11 straight when Giannis plays. Antetokounmpo was on minutes limit in Sacramento on Wednesday, but will probably get back to his normal minutes against the Lakers. Bucks have beaten a lot of elite teams this season, they’ve not only been the best team overall, they also have the best road record at 22-9 and have won 9 straight on the road, they’ve been able to go to tough buildings like Golden State, Houston, Toronto, Boston, Denver and win in all of those places so playing in LA against the Lakers should be no problem for Milwaukee. The Bucks have the 3rd best OFF RTG, 1st BEST DEF RTG this team has absolutely no weaknesses and also the addition of Nikola Mirotic has made them even stronger than they were already as he’s fit in well. We can only anticipate Milwaukee to dominate the paint tonight with Giannis likely to drop a huge performance against the sluggish Lakers. Health wise, Milwaukee have a healthy starting 5, but will miss a couple of players off the bench however Milwaukee should be fine for tonight.
Injury Report
George Hill – OUT
Sterling Brown – OUT
Donte DiVincenzo – OUT
Betting Stats
Totals
Lakers are the WORST team in the NBA at covering total point overs at home at 24.1% this season (7-1-21). Total against the Bucks is offered at 238.5 points and the Lakers have had that exact total once against Minnesota which ended with an under in a 114-110 win. Lakers also had a very similar 239.0 total in their last game against New Orleans which ended with a rare Over for the Lakers at Staples Center in a game that they won 125-119.
Milwaukee don’t have a very good percentage at total point overs on the road this season despite having an explosive offense. Bucks have covered 45.2% of their total point overs on the road this season (14-17). The Bucks haven’t had a 238.5 point total on the road before, but the closest they’ve had to that was a 240.5 point total at Golden State which ended up with an over in a 134-111 win for Milwaukee.
Handicaps
Lakers have covered 41.4% of their Handicaps at home this season (12-17). Lakers are 5 point underdogs against Milwaukee tonight. Lakers have not had a +5 Handicap but have had a +5.5 Handicap twice against the Clippers and Thunder and they failed to cover both of them losing 107-118 and 100-107. Lakers are 2-6 at covering Handicaps at home as underdogs.
Milwaukee are one of the best teams in the NBA at covering Handicaps on the road this season at 61.3% (19-12). Milwaukee have covered 8 of their last 9 Handicaps on the road. Bucks have had a -5 Handicap once before against Charlotte which they failed to cover in a 110-107 loss. They’ve also had a -5.5 Handicap twice on the road before against Dallas which they covered in a 122-107 win and Sacramento which they failed to cover in a 141-140 win.
Recent H2H in Los Angeles
Milwaukee have won 2 straight games in Los Angeles against the Lakers both being pretty close wins.
Milwaukee last beat the Lakers on the road 124-122 last season and in that game they covered a -1.5 Handicap by .5 point and Total 221.5 points resulted with an over. Although there was Overtime, the total did end up with an over after 4 quarters as the score was 112-112 totalling 224 points. A LOT has changed since that last meeting in LA as Milwaukee have established themselves as an elite team since and the Lakers added LeBron James of course.
TIP OFF – 2nd March 2019 – 3:30am UK Time
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