{"id":12080,"date":"2010-12-31T17:45:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-31T22:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12080"},"modified":"2010-12-31T17:45:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-31T22:45:22","slug":"nba-expert-picks-philadelphia-76ers-at-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-expert-picks-philadelphia-76ers-at-los-angeles-lakers-12080\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Expert Picks: Philadelphia 76ers at Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia 76ers AT Los Angeles Lakers
\nDecember 31st, 2010 at 10:35 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 L.A. -10
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 L.A. -10
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 195
\nCurrent Total: 195.5
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 L.A. -650 \/ Philadelphia +525
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 L.A. -600 \/ Philadelphia +450<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Kobe has struggled of late, averaging only 18 ppg over his last 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphia has played well of late, as winners of 6 of their past 10 games, but NBA Oddsmakers seem to have taken into account that Philadelphia remains a horrible road team with a 5-13 record away from the Wachovia Center.<\/p>\n

The Lakers have cooled after a good start to the season, and like the Sixers have won 6 of their past 10 games.\u00a0 They remain 10-4 at the Staples Center and Kobe Bryant continued to struggle in their victory last game over the New Orleans Hornets.\u00a0 He shot better from the field (8 of 14), but played only 27 minutes and scored just 20 points.\u00a0 It seems that the lineup change made a difference, as the Lakers brought Odom off the bench and started Bynum.\u00a0 Odom responded with a strong game, scoring 24 points, and Bynum played well too (8 of 12 from the floor for 18 points), showing the genius of Phil Jackson once again.<\/p>\n

Kobe commented, \u201cWe played much better. We executed much better. Our defense did an excellent job, (Bynum) makes a big difference plugging up the middle, rebounding. He\u2019s moving better. \u2026 He seems to be more stable, more active.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last two times the teams met, the Lakers won 93-81, outscoring the Sixers 35-19 in the final quarter, but Iguodala held Kobe in check, allowing Bryant just 9 points.\u00a0 Given Kobe’s recent struggles, it seems reasonable that the same could happen; that is, if Iguodala is able to go, he has been nursing an achilles injury.<\/p>\n

Some Betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 7 Philadelphia’s last 10 games on the road and they have won only 5 of their last 19 on the road.\u00a0 They are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 against the Lakers and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of the last 5 against the Lakers.\u00a0 They have lost 6 of their last 7 against the Lakers and are 1-4 on the road in their last 5 against the Lakers.\u00a0 They are 3-6 ATS in their last 9 road games against L.A. and the total has gone UNDER in 7 of the last 10 road games against the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 16 of the Lakers’ last 21 games.\u00a0 they are 9-4 over their past 13 games and 6-12 ATS in their last 18 games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 6 of their last 7 at home and they have won 20 of their last 25 home games.\u00a0 They are 1-5 ATS in their last 6 home games.<\/p>\n

Key Matchups:
\n
\nKobe Bryant vs. Andre Iguodala and\/or Evan Turner<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Iguodala is unable to go, expect Kobe to exploit rookie Evan Turner to the fullest.\u00a0 If Iguodala is able to go, expect Kobe to continue to struggle.\u00a0 It’s really that simple.\u00a0 Kobe has historically struggled mightly (at least in terms of his usual production) against Andre Iguodala, who has the speed and length to stay in front of Kobe and then contest any and all shots he takes.\u00a0 Iguodala isn’t much of a scorer and is averaging less points this season than last, but he is a decent shooter and good slasher and can help Philly on offense, though his main contribution is his lock down defense.
\n
\nLamar Odom\/Andrew Bynum\/Pau Gasol vs. Elton Brand\/Thaddeus Young\/Spencer Hawes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously the Lakers’ front court trio has the huge advantage here, and the question really becomes:\u00a0 “Can Philly hold the Lakers’ large front court in check at all?”\u00a0 Brand is the only one with the toughness necessary to match up against them, but he lacks the size to do well against the all 6’10” and over L.A. frontline.\u00a0 Thaddeus Young is undersized at power forward and Spencer Hawes is too soft.\u00a0 Really, this trio vs trio is going to spell the doom of the Sixers and for them to have any shot, Brand\/Young\/Hawes are going to have to play basically the best games of their careers, and it is why NBA Oddsmakers have set the line so far in L.A.’s advantage, along with Philadelphia’s struggles on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia 76ers AT Los Angeles Lakers December 31st, 2010 at 10:35 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 L.A. -10 Current Line:\u00a0 L.A. -10 Opening Total:\u00a0 195 Current Total: 195.5 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 L.A. -650 \/ Philadelphia +525 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 L.A. -600 \/ Philadelphia +450 Philadelphia has played well of late, as winners of 6 of their past 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[67,68,832],"class_list":["post-12080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-philadelphia-76ers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12080","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12081,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12080\/revisions\/12081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}