NBA Preview: Lake Show Travels to Phoenix

It’s a busy night in the National Basketball Association as 12 games — many of which hold huge playoff implications — are set to be played. The marquee matchup of the evening will go down in Phoenix, as the Suns take on Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, re-igniting a longstanding rivalry between these two clubs.

Let’s take a look at the NBA basketball betting lines for the Suns-Lakers game, and other key battles.

Los Angeles lakers (1.71) at Phoenix Suns (2.20)

The Lakers (47-18) and Suns (40-25) are the top two teams in the Pacific Division — while that seven-game gap might be too overwhelming for Phoenix to close, the Suns are just percentage points behind Oklahoma City (39-24) for fifth place in the West. Bottom line — this is a very crucial affair for Phoenix.

Phoenix has been white-hot of late, winning 14 of its last 18 games by doing what they do best: scoring points at will. The Suns have rung up at least 101 points in each of their last four games (and have gone 3-1 over that stretch); no surprise, then, that the Over/Under total for this game is currently listed at 212.5 points. It seems that whenever the Suns and Lakers lock horns, offense is always on the menu. Consider the scores from their most recent contests:

Dec. 28, 09 — Phoenix 118, Los Angeles 103
Dec. 6, 09 — Los Angeles 108, Phoenix 88
Nov. 12, 09 — Los Angeles 121, Phoenix 102

Speaking of the Lakers, they’re fresh off a 109-107 nail-biter over Toronto that snapped their three-game losing streak. Los Angeles broke the slump by getting back to basics; namely, relying on the big three of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to carry the load. Bryant went for 32, Bynum tallied 22 points and Gasol registered 17 points and nine boards.

As far as betting trends go, this has historically been a matchup that Los Angeles dominates. Since 2008, these two teams have met nine times in the regular season, with the Lakers winning six of those games.

In other NBA basketball betting action this evening…

Chicago Bulls (7.25) at Miami Heat (1.11): Chicago has been horri-Bull (groan) as of late, mired in a six-game losing streak, the franchise’s longest since 2006. The Bulls are simply ravaged by injury, as Luol Deng (strained calf), Joakim Noah (plantar fasciitis) and possibly Derrick Rose (who left last night’s contest with a sprained left wrist) could all be out tonight. While the Bulls are just 1.5 games back of Miami for 8th place in the East, it’s hard to fathom that they’ll be putting up much of a playoff push this evening with so many key players banged up.

Denver Nuggets (1.43) at New Orleans Hornets (2.90): The Nugs (43-21) are comfortably in the Western Conference playoffs and looking to try and catch Dallas for the No. 2 seed overall. The Hornets (32-33) are still mathematically alive, but currently sit 6.5 games back of 8th-place Portland and are simply running out of time to make a push.

It should be noted that the Nugget offense is firing on all cylinders as of late. Denver has scored 110 points or more in each of the last four games, averaging 117.3 ppg in that time. It is 8-12 in the previous 20 road games after beginning the campaign 7-4 as the visitor.

If you’d like to check out sports betting options for these games or other NBA basketball betting lines, head on over to the Sports Interaction online sportsbook today!