NBA Free Picks: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Added on Dec 22, 2009 by Jack Thurman in
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The world champion Los Angeles Lakers are back from a five game road trip to face the improving Oklahoma City Thunder. Superficially, this looks like a mismatch but there’s a number of situational stars in alignment that suggests good value on the underdog. OKC’s Kevin Durant is quickly earning his place among the NBA’s top scorers and the entire Thunder team is much better than they were last year.
Oklahoma City Thunder at Los Angeles Lakers
December 22nd 7:35 PM Pacific
The Lakers got all they could handle from the Thunder in Oklahoma City in the teams’ first meeting of the season, but won and covered easily at the Staples Center in late November. This situation could be different, however, as the Lakers are just back from a long road trip and have a huge ‘lookahead’ game on deck as they play the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James in a nationally televised Christmas Day game. The Thunder have been in Los Angeles for two full days, meaning they’ll be rested and well prepared for the Lakers. The Lakers, meanwhile, could be distracted from returning home pre-Christmas and have their mind on their highest profile regular season game of the year.
The Lakers are 22-4 SU this year in online sportsbooks, but have a losing pointspread record at 12-14. They’re 15-2 SU at the Staples Center with a 9-8 record against the spread. Oklahoma City is right at .500, with a 13-13 SU record but a 15-11 mark against the number. They’re 6-6 on the road with a 7-5 ATS mark. The Lakers have underperformed against the spread in the month of December with a 4-6 mark.
Ultimately, this is a much more significant game for the Thunder than the Lakers. Though Los Angeles has dominated the series SU, the Thunder have been very competitive against the spread. Over the past three seasons, Los Angeles is 9-0 SU against OKC, but only 5-4 against the spread. At home, they’re 4-0 SU but the spread record is even at 2-2. We’ll take a hard trying road underdog against a possibly distracted home team and look for them to make a game of it.
