Will we get another overtime game? The Lakers have played in three total overtimes in the past two games, sadly, against the likes of the Detroit Pistons and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers avoided embarrassment in each game, pulling out the win after two overtimes against the Pistons and one against the Thunder on Monday night. Tonight, they’ll hopefully avoid giving us another long night against an inferior opponent as they have a chance to sweep their season series against the Thunder with a win tonight (Lakers beat the Thunder earlier in the season 128-99). The win would also be the Lakers’ 20th, becoming only the second team to do so in this season (Utah Jazz won their 20th last night).
Injury news
The Lakers have moved Anthony Davis (right Achilles tendinosis) to questionable for Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma City after Davis sat out Monday night pic.twitter.com/eIylypyCPi
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 10, 2021
Anthony Davis missed the Lakers’ first game against the Thunder this week with a new injury, listed as “right Achilles tendonosis”. Although his MRI came clean, it seems the Lakers have just been cautious with him as he has already been upgraded from “out” to “questionable” for tonight’s game. Still, he was “questionable” starting the day on Monday, and could easily be out again tonight. Alex Caruso missed Monday’s game as well and is also “questionable” for tonight’s game.
If Davis ends up being held out of tonight’s game, that may not end up mattering much for the Lakers as the Thunder will be without their best player as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be out. That’ll be a huge blow for the Thunder, as SGA was a huge reason for the game going to overtime on Monday nearing a triple-double with 29 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds.
Betting central
Lakers -11.5; Over/Under 218; Lakers moneyline -770
I’m now 4-7-1 on the season, storming back from my terrible start with a 4-2 record in my past two previews written. I’m still behind Kyle, as he’s 11-8 on the season.
The Lakers line is bumped up to -11.5 from -10.5 on Monday (-10.5 after the absence of Anthony Davis was announced). Although the Lakers only came close to eclipsing -10.5 on Monday because of overtime, I do think they cover -11.5 tonight. Even with Davis out, I think the absence of SGA for the Thunder will be too much for them and this will be more similar to the 128-99 rout that the Lakers gave the Thunder in OKC than the game on Monday. And if Davis plays, then my confidence in this pick rises even more.
I want to be the under for this game with SGA being out, but then again I can’t really count on the Lakers to finish games during regulation anymore. Instead, I’ll dive into some prop bets and will take LeBron James over 8.5 assists at -120 and Montrezl Harrell over 15.5 points at -102. This may backfire on me as this is mostly based on their totals on Monday (LeBron had 12 assists and Harrell had 21 points) but I do see this as another game that LeBron can spread the wealth to his teammates. He especially seems to do this when Davis is out, but I still like the total even with Davis out as I see this as a blowout where LeBron can toy around with his opponent. Then with Harrell, he will continue to score above 15.5 if Davis is out. Even if Davis plays, Harrell is usually out there with the scrubs in blowouts. I could see him getting over that 15.5 number in garbage time if he doesn’t get it before then.
Top odds via DraftKings Sportsbook while player props via Action Network.
Where to watch
Tip-off will be at 7:00 p.m. PST, with the game available on Spectrum SportsNet.
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