{"id":22945,"date":"2012-05-04T09:13:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=22945"},"modified":"2012-05-04T09:13:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:13:22","slug":"nba-playoff-predictions-2012-los-angeles-lakers-vs-denver-nuggets-game-3-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-playoff-predictions-2012-los-angeles-lakers-vs-denver-nuggets-game-3-preview-22945\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Playoff Predictions 2012: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets, Game 3 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets
\nFriday, 5\/4\/12, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Denver -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Denver -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 204
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 204
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Los Angeles Lakers are two wins away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Los Angeles has managed to break the century mark offensively in winning the first two games of this best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series, including a 104-100 victory as 5.5-point home favorites on Tuesday night.\u00a0 The Lakers were led offensively by star guard Kobe Bryant pouring in 38 points, which followed up a solid performance in netting 31 in Game 1.\u00a0 \u201cI feel great,\u201d commented Bryant after the latest triumph.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re doing fine, playing well.\u201d\u00a0 Los Angeles is 11-21 ATS on the road this year, with the \u201cunder\u201d going 18-15 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Lakers have managed to win 19-of-23 postseason games against the Nuggets, which includes an 8-2 mark when playing in the Mile High City.\u00a0 Los Angeles is also getting tremendous production out of All-Star center Andrew Bynum, scoring 27 points of his own in Game 2.\u00a0 The 65 combined points between Bryant and Bynum were the most they\u2019ve ever scored together in a postseason game.\u00a0 The franchise is 42-1 all-time in series play after winning the first two games of a best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n

Denver has lost five of six overall meetings with Los Angeles when including the regular season this year, with the lone victory coming in a 99-90 win as 5.5-point home favorites on Jan. 1.\u00a0 Forward Danilo Gallinari led a group of six players scoring in double figures that night, pouring in 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting from the floor.\u00a0 Total players will definitely take notice that the \u201cunder\u201d cashed with ease in both games at the Pepsi Center this year.\u00a0 Denver is 4-7 ATS as a home favorite of 3.5 to 6 points, with the \u201cunder\u201d going 8-3 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets definitely need to push the pace in hopes of getting back into this series, leading the NBA in averaging 104.1 points per game during the regular season.\u00a0 Denver managed to score 100 points in its latest lost, but it was the only time its reach the century mark in the last eight meetings.\u00a0 The locker room will need to draw some energy from the home crowd, but it likely won\u2019t matter due to the franchise losing all five previous playoff series against tonight\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Lakers due to their 6-0 ATS mark as a road underdog of 4.5 or fewer points, while the Nuggets are 1-3-1 ATS in their last five playoff games as a favorite in that point range.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers at Denver Nuggets Friday, 5\/4\/12, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Denver -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Denver -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 204 Current Total:\u00a0 204 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Los Angeles has managed to break the century mark offensively in winning the first two games of this best-of-seven Western Conference first-round […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[795,526,67,68,216,3693],"class_list":["post-22945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-andrew-bynum","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-ty-lawson","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945","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=22945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22946,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22945\/revisions\/22946"}],"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=22945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}