Los Angeles Lakers at Boston Celtics
Thursday, 2/10/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV: TNT
Opening Point Spread: Boston -3
Current Betting Line: Boston -2.5
Opening Total: 187.5
Current Total: 188
Los Angeles dropped the first meeting of the season by a 109-96 score at the Staples Center and will now look to gain revenge by winning a third straight regular season road game over Boston. The Lakers are 17-8 on the road this season, but 15 of those games have come against opponents who entered with a sub-.500 record. The squad is 13-2 away from Southern California against losing teams, but 4-6 against winning clubs. Los Angeles carries a solid 36-16 record into this contest and is a dominating 7-1 on the road against Eastern Conference opponents. The team is 13-12 ATS on the road this season and currently an underdog on the NBA lines page.
The Lakers currently trail their season series with the Celtics after splitting last season’s series and sweeping the 2008-09 campaign. Los Angeles knows it must change its non-physical ways to come out of Beantown with a victory. “We’re going to have to be really physical, really solid, really aggressive in order to be successful in Boston,” said forward Pau Gasol. Under head coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers are 13-8 against the Celtics in the regular season. Star Kobe Bryant has helped him tally a winning record in this heated rivalry by averaging 25.5 points in 23 career regular season games.
Boston is starting to feel the rigors of the regular season on the bench and it showed up in a 94-89 loss to Charlotte last time out. The Celtics need to start getting solid bench play in order to rest the regulars before the playoffs begin. “What my concern is with our team is that our starting lineup is set but I think we’ve had like five minutes this year with the bench we thought we were going to play and I don’t even know if we’ve had that yet,” said coach Doc Rivers. The team is 23-4 at home, but has dropped two of the last three at the TD Garden due to nagging injuries. Boston is 17-23 ATS as a favorite and 55-70 ATS at home over the past three years.
The Celtics are a perfect 17-0 versus conference opponents at home, but have just a regular 6-4 mark against the West. Boston will need another big game from Paul Pierce to capture the regular season series sweep, as he scored a team-high 32 points in the first meeting. All of the team’s focus should be squarely placed on this game after the disappointing loss to the Bobcats, as the best shooting team in the league managed to connect on just 40.8 percent of its shots. “I thought we messed around and tried to win it in the fourth quarter,” said Rivers. “But we didn’t have anything in the tank.”
Bettors will likely back the Celtics due to their 22-8 ATS mark after a loss, while the Lakers are 1-10 ATS on Thursday.
