Cleveland at LA Lakers
Time: 10:30 PM ET, Jan 14, 2013
Spread: CLE -4
M/L: CLE -175; LAL +155
Total: 204
Betting Odds courtesy of 5dimes
The L.A. Lakers have won just one of its past 10 games and has fallen to 14-23 on the season. Tonight, the team will host the Cleveland Cavaliers (13-24) and NBA oddsmakers at 5dimes are favoring the visiting Cavs by 4-points.
The Lakers knew this season would be difficult with Kobe Bryant fighting his way back from injury (only to get injured again after six games), but the trouble didn’t really begin until Dec 21. Since that point, the team has only notched one victory over the woeful Utah Jazz and Mike D’Antoni has just been trying to milk the most he can from a cast of castaways and spare parts.
One of those parts, Nick “Swaggy P” Young, has evolved into a very good scorer. But Young lacks efficiency and shoots a lot of bad shots while committing turnovers en masse. His PER is just 14.4 despite his primary scorer status with Kobe Bryant out, and the Lakers don’t have a lot of other places to turn for offense.
The declining Pau Gasol is still good for 15 points a game and Jodie Meeks can fill it up sometimes, but the Lakers are a team that are not good enough offensively to hold its weight on most nights.
Cleveland is still a one man team by most peoples’ reckonings. Kyrie Irving has asserted himself as a top-5 NBA point guard, but no other Cavalier has yet to establish much of a reputation, save perhaps Anderson Varejao who is coming off a lung clot ailment and not fully effective this season.
The team decided to part ways with Andrew Bynum, ending a half-season experiment to find an All-Star caliber big man to pair with Irving.
2013 No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Bennett has been a colossal bust thus far and is averaging 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. 2012 first round pick Dion Waiters has failed to blossom into a starter; and Tristan Thompson appears to be a career role player. The Cavs need a legit second star to pair next to Irving, and with the current disaster path of this season, the 2014 draft may be able to land the Cavs faithful just that.
Cleveland Trends: 4-0 ATS in last 4 when opponent allows 10 or more in previous game; UNDER 5-0 in last 5 on 1 days rest; 4-0 ATS in last 4 vs teams with winning percentages below .400
Los Angeles Trends: 0-4 ATS in last 4 overall; 0-5 ATS in last 5 after allowing 100 or more in previous game; 0-5 ATS in last 5 when opponent allows 100 or more in previous game.
Head-to-head: UNDER 5-1 in last 6 meetings in LA; UNDER 9-2 in last 11 meetings; Cavaliers 5-2 ATS in last 7 meetings.
