NBA Betting Picks: Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers

Added on Jan 16, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

The ongoing semi-rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and their underachieving neighbors the Los Angeles Clippers will be renewed at the Staples Center on Sunday. Even though the Lakers are by far the more successful team, the Clippers have been relatively competitive in these matchups lately making it interesting from a pointspread standpoint if nothing else.

Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers
January 16, 2011 12:35 PM Pacific

With the exception of a three game losing streak around the Christmas holiday, the Lakers are taking care of business despite injuries and a suddenly impotent offense. The Lakers have won 16 of their L21 SU but haven’t performed well against the pointspread going 8-13 ATS in that stretch. They haven’t looked dominant, but they’ve found ways to win and that’s often more valuable come playoff time. The best thing that can be said about the Clippers is that they have some promising young talent led by Blake Griffin. They’ve won 8 of their L12 SU going 7-4-1 ATS. The Clips may not play particularly good team defense but they’ve got enough talent to be competitive with most teams.

There’s a good case to be made for taking the Clippers plus the points here. They’ve performed well in games against conference foes, at least against the number with a 16-7-1 ATS mark. They’ve also covered four of the last five meetings with the Lakers and 6 of the L9. The Lakers also have a much more important game with OKC on deck for Monday. On the other hand, the Clippers have struggled this season against teams that play good team defense and the Lakers have done an excellent job of that lately. We think a better position will be to play this game Under the total. Lakers Under in 16 of their last 20 overall and 16 of 22 against opponents with losing records. The Clippers have the talent to stay in this game, but we don’t see them dictating tempo and expect this one to stay Under the total.

Bet Los Angeles Lakers/Los Angeles Clippers Under 196′