{"id":12198,"date":"2011-01-05T16:24:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T21:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2011-01-05T16:24:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T21:24:11","slug":"western-conference-showdown-l-a-lakers-at-phoenix-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/western-conference-showdown-l-a-lakers-at-phoenix-suns-12198\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Conference Showdown: L.A. Lakers at Phoenix Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers AT Phoenix Suns
\nWednesday, January 5, 2011 at 10:35 PM EST
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 L.A. -4
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 L.A. -4
\nOpening Total: 209
\nCurrent Total: 207
\nOpening Moneyline: L.A. -200 \/ Phoenix +170
\nCurrent Moneyilne:\u00a0 L.A. -200 \/ Phoenix +170<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The task of stopping this man will lie on the shoulders of Marcin Gortat and Robin Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Lakers finally found a way to get things going last game against the Memphis Grizzlies.\u00a0 They have won just 3 of their last 7, but managed to dispose of the Grizzlies 108-83.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the guys, \u2018Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation,\u2019\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt\u2019s early, we just continue to play, take our time. The playoffs aren\u2019t tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kobe can only take a positive stance since he is part of the struggles.\u00a0 He’s scored 21 or less in 6 of the last 8 games, and some are left to wonder if his long NBA career is beginning to take a toll on his legs.<\/p>\n

L.A. is however dominating the rest of their division.\u00a0 Phoenix actually happens to be second in the conference, but they are 8.5 games behind L.A. and are under .500 with a 14-18 record.\u00a0 While Mickael Pietrus’ NBA Finals guarantee may be a bit far fetched to any one other than him, it’s doubtful many consider the Suns to be division crown champion contenders, either.<\/p>\n

Some Betting trends:<\/p>\n

The Lakers have won 11 of their past 16 and have won 6 of their last 7 on the road.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 10 of their past 14 road games and it has gone OVER in 6 of the last 8 against Phoenix.\u00a0 They are 12-5 over their last 17 against the Suns.\u00a0 They have lost 4 of the last 6 to Phoenix, though, and the total has gone OVER in 4 of those games.\u00a0 They have won only 7 of the last 23 road games in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Phoenix has won only 1 of their last 6 games and are 1-4 ATS in their last 5.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last\u00a0 6 home games and they have won 2 of those 6 games.\u00a0 They are 1-5 ATS in those games, as well.\u00a0 Phoenix is 5-10 ATS in their last 15 home games against the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Key matchups:<\/p>\n

Derek Fisher & Steve Blake vs Steve Nash<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Nash isn’t slow, it isn’t his speed that gives him an advantage against decent to good defenders like Fisher and Blake.\u00a0 His constant hesitation dribbles and change of direction moves give most defenders problems.\u00a0 The problem against a team like the Lakers is that even once he beats the perimeter defenders on the dribble, he’ll find the paint clogged by the L.A. bigs.\u00a0 The Lakers have the Suns, like most teams they play, badly outmatched on the front line.<\/p>\n

Odom\/Gasol\/Bynum vs. Frye\/Lopez\/Warrick\/Gortat<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t need to labor too much on this for you to get the point that L.A.’s front court dominates Phoenix’s.\u00a0 It isn’t so much size as skill that separates the two.\u00a0 Gasol is one of the best centers in the past ten years’ in the NBA and Odom has been great off the bench.\u00a0 Bynum does a great job of keeping the ball high and preventing the smaller defenders from knocking it away from him, and really this will be what determines the game — the frontlines.<\/p>\n

It seems odd that NBA oddsmakers have only set a 4 points spread for tonight’s game, but they are clearly taking into account L.A.’s recent struggles.\u00a0 One has to wonder, however, just how long a good team like L.A. can continue to struggle as they have.\u00a0 They are the defending champs for a reason and seem like a good bet to cover the spread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers AT Phoenix Suns Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 10:35 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 L.A. -4 Current Line:\u00a0 L.A. -4 Opening Total: 209 Current Total: 207 Opening Moneyline: L.A. -200 \/ Phoenix +170 Current Moneyilne:\u00a0 L.A. -200 \/ Phoenix +170 The Lakers finally found a way to get things going last game against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":3935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[67,68,577],"class_list":["post-12198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-phoenix-suns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198","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=12198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12200,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions\/12200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}