{"id":10058,"date":"2010-10-29T08:01:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T13:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10058"},"modified":"2010-10-29T08:01:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T13:01:16","slug":"pro-basketball-predictions-los-angeles-lakers-at-phoenix-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-predictions-los-angeles-lakers-at-phoenix-suns-10058\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Predictions: Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix Suns
\nFriday, 10\/30\/10, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles -4.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 212
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 210<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Phoenix Suns are listed as five-point home underdogs against the Los Angeles Lakers in a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles rallied back in a game that it trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half to pick up a 112-110 home victory over the Houston Rockets on opening night.\u00a0 The Lakers also received their championship rings on this night in a celebration of the franchise\u2019s 16th title.\u00a0 \u201cThe ring ceremony is so special,\u201d said Lakers guard Shannon Brown.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s history.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that nobody can ever take away.\u201d\u00a0 One team that the club faced on its way to another NBA title was the Phoenix Suns, winning the Western Conference Finals in six games, with star Kobe Bryant averaging 33.7 points and 8.3 assists in that series.\u00a0 \u201cWe beat them in the playoffs last year,\u201d said Bryant.\u00a0 \u201cThey used to kick our butt all the time in the playoffs.\u201d\u00a0 Los Angeles is 16-16 ATS when playing with two days rest and the NBA odds page has them listed as a five-point favorite.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are 34-16 in road openers since moving to Los Angeles prior to the 1960-61 season, picking up a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder last year.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 12-2 in its last 14 such games and has won five straight.\u00a0 Newcomer Steve Blake already made a big splash in his first action as a Laker, hitting a go-ahead shot with 18 seconds left over Houston.\u00a0 The bench will be relied upon heavily in the early going as Bryant regains strength in his surgically repaired right knee, but he did manage to play 37 minutes in the opener.\u00a0 \u201cI feel good,\u201d he said after the game.<\/p>\n

Phoenix bounced back from a tough opening night in Portland and tallied a 110-94 road victory over the Utah Jazz last night.\u00a0 It was a surprising result due to Utah\u2019s perfect preseason record that included two victories over the Suns.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s very early.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t play so well in the preseason.\u00a0 Utah beat us twice and we just couldn\u2019t get a rhythm, couldn\u2019t get in a comfort zone,\u201d said forward Grant Hill.\u00a0 The Suns backcourt of Steve Nash and Jason Richardson outscored the Utah duo of Deron Willams and Raja Bell 34-20 in the contest.\u00a0 It was an all-around team effort with six players scoring between 18 and 11 points.\u00a0 Phoenix is 50-38 ATS at home the past two years.<\/p>\n

The Suns will be aiming for playoff revenge in this contest and also defeating the Lakers at the US Airways Center for the first time since December 28, 2009.\u00a0 Opposing head coach Phil Jackson knows that Phoenix remains dangerous even without forward Amare Stoudemire.\u00a0 \u201cThe combination of Stoudemire and Nash has been great in the last few years, so that will need a little timing,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cBut this will be a good team, Phoenix will be a real good team.\u201d\u00a0 Hakim Warrick did his best to fill those shoes last night by scoring 18 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in knowing that the home team is 9-3 ATS in this series and the Suns finished the 2009-10 season on a 19-6-1 ATS run at home.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss a single night of NBA expert picks from the team at Maddux Sports and grab a season package today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix Suns Friday, 10\/30\/10, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Los Angeles -4.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Los Angeles -5 Opening Total:\u00a0 212 Current Total:\u00a0 210 Los Angeles rallied back in a game that it trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half to pick up a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[3650,575,67,68,909,939,577,576],"class_list":["post-10058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-grant-hill","tag-jason-richardson","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-pau-gasol","tag-phil-jackson","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-steve-nash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10060,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10058\/revisions\/10060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}