the Battle of Los Angeles last night in Downtown LA at the crypto.com arena between the Lakers and the Clippers the Lakers technically on the road the Clippers the home team in the fourth and final matchup between these two Cross Arena rivals in Los Angeles of this season and that's been a story DRS the Clippers entered this year against the Lakers dominating the Battle of Los Angeles in recent memory where the Lakers have owned la for pretty much always and forever the Clippers entered this yea
r though winning 11 straight games against the Lakers the Lakers have now won three of the four in this regular season matchup to win the regular season series including unlikely last night not just because they were booked as a three and a half Point pregame Underdog but because the Late Show was down 21 points early in the fourth quarter before they storm all the way back to win by 4 116 112 again the Lakers went outright behind a big fourth quarter as a team and from LeBron James 116 112 as a
three and a half Point dog and it was coming into the season a heatwave Bend for those Los Angeles Clippers on a roll against the Los Angeles Lakers but this year it looks like the Lakers have their number and quite frankly maybe we didn't think that was going to be the case as they were getting routed into the fourth quarter last night maybe one of those games you start to talk about for yourself and you know how it goes in the NBA right Superstar players play hey guys I'm GNA give you two to
three minutes here in the fourth quarter to try to come back otherwise we're going to send Anthony Davis and LeBron James to the bench play this one out and lived to fight another day they started that comeback right away and how about that fourth quarter 39 points for the Los Angeles Lakers 16 points for the Clippers as the Lakers wi going away by Four Points obviously covering as they were an underdog getting three and a half it was a simple handicap for me yesterday hey one Superstar down let
me just take the other team technically on their home home court and it looked like a disastrous handicap right up to halftime through the third quarter and into the early stages of the fourth quarter but all you see is the final score and that you want to bet you'll live with that at this point here but that's a nice win for the Lakers 32 and 28 every win they get sort of staves off that elimination coming from maybe the Utah Jazz if they get it together even though we don't think they will th
at's a good win for the Lakers and a great comeback and again not a wasted effort out of their two superstars if you're going to play a lot of minutes you better win that basketball game and they did DRS we mentioned this at the beginning when we broke down this game it was our lead story in the seven in seven the Lakers coming back from down 21 in the fourth quarter the Lakers outscored the Clippers in the fourth and final stands up 39-6 LeBron James had 34 points to lead all scores last night
in Los Angeles 19 of the 34 came in the fourth quarter for LeBron James 21 of course NBA Seasons the 18th time in his NBA career LeBron James as his individual self has outscored the opponent in a fourth and final quarter he had 19 the Clippers as a team only 16 the 18th time in LeBron's career nobody else in NBA history has done that more than three times crazy when you think of that juer position but the Lakers get a big win and the Lakers have been great as a dog this year now 14 and 14 again
st the spread but 11 of those 14 covers an outright win the Clippers have not looked great since the All-Star break they have now lost three of four they have not covered in any of those four games now we go to the home of the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets that altitude Advantage has been there all season long Denver Now 23 and5 straight up at home after a big victory last night over the Sacramento Kings it seemed like a large number 7 and a half in favor of Denver turns out the number wa
s correct the Nuggets cover as a seven and 1 Half Point home favorite they win by 21 Denver Now 23 and five straight up at home booked as a favorite in every game make that 14 13 and one against the spread yeah this is the games that make Denver so scary for us here because you don't need a ton out of yage and yes he did get a triple double look at the starting lineup and how well they played for the Denver Nuggets yesterday just in their plus minus numbers that we never hear about Gordon plus 4
0 Porter Jr plus 35 joic Plus 37 Caldwell pop plus 38 by the way Jamal Mary who scored a team High 32 points only finished with a plus seven make that one make sense here but I thought the Sacramento Kings would be able to stay inside that number as they were getting close to double digits here and also Ben we talked about yesterday the chances of joic and also sabonis both getting triple doubles well we got close yic got his we three assists shy on damont sabonis last night but the Sacramento K
ings these are some of those games that we started to talk about and say can they add up in the playoffs fun regular season team we know it has talent sometimes they don't play a ton of Defense but then when you get the rubber meeting the road in the playoffs here Ben it just doesn't line up and this is one of those games where I know it doesn't mean much here we still have 20 games left and nobody's gonna look at the Kings losing by double digits of the Denver Nuggets on the road in a regular s
eason game saying they can't win in the playoffs but I just need to see the Kings win more of these games so maybe if you want to take a flyer in the kings in the playoffs you have something to fall back on I thought they could stay close they didn't stay close at all last night man Denver has won all four games since the All-Star break Nico yic has recorded a triple double in all four of those games 14 points 14 boards 11 dimes last night I said I was going to bet both nicoa yic and yic light i
n deont sabonis to record a triple double plus 125 for the Joker Cash Plus 260 for sabonis came up three assist shot so a big victory for Denver Sacramento better as an underdog this year at least in terms of covering numbers despite the non- cover last night 11 and8 against the spread as a dog 1820 and one against the spread as a favorite we'll talk about the standings in the Western Conference in just a moment everybody looking up at Minnesota at this time but the CPS on a small slide still th
e second best number though to win the Western Conference Crown plus 240 Denver trickles under two bucks for the first time this year it's a plus one 90 number now on the nuggets as the favorites to win the West yeah and that's what we're looking at now right pedigree is there also they won the world championship last year and even before they won it last year we were questioning if the Denver Nuggets could get it done is yok at your big time performing the biggest moments Jamal Murray some of t
he other guys stepping up there we know what to expect and also maybe the best homec court advantage overall in the NBA and we're just not talking about the fans being loud in the building that elevation is serious if you can get four games in your own building and three on the the road every single trip around you're going to do damage for the Nuggets they'll be hard to knock off so maybe if your team's looking up at the nuggets in the standing you're saying you know what don't get too close at
least hopefully you have home court advantage away from them in OKC and or Minnesota where somebody might be able to take them out you just don't want to have homecourt Advantage with the Denver Nuggets all the way through that's probably a great Pathway to getting back to an NBA championship and going back to back so if we can bring up those Western Conference odds because I know we have them there are Western Conference odds we will look at how those odds correlate to the standings in just a
moment Denver sits in third two full games now back of the Minnesota Timberwolves Oklahoma City did not play last night a half game behind the t-wolves and when you look at the standings beyond that the Clippers four games back after now having dropped three of their last four games since the All-Star break but you see the Thunder at 8 to1 a full Dollar in front of Minnesota a plus 900 number on the t-wolves who were a 12 and a half Point home favorite last night against the Memphis Grizzlies in
the Twin Cities Minnesota wins rather comfortably they win by nine but they do not cover Memphis again not a bad covered team they have covered in 15 of their last 22 as an underdog without johnar and a ton of other players like Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart as they cover last night that 12 and a half Point Road dog in Minneapolis 110 101 the final in favor of the Timberwolves who do pick up their 42nd victory of this season now a half game Advantage for the top spot in the west but by the way
we just showed that graphic up here it's sort of an indictment on the NBA you don't see this in any other sport now if you want to say you don't trust the Minnesota Timberwolves in the playoffs I hear you there they're 42 and 17 on the season they're in first place here not been like the first two weeks of the Season they're in first place at the three quter pole Mark here heading down the stretch and playing very good basketball what sport would you find a team that if it ended today would have
homecourt Advantage all throughout their playoffs and get close to a 10 to1 price you want to tell me 3 to one four to one or 5 to1 okay I understand that but a 9 to1 price right now at the fandu sports book for a team that's 42 and 17 just seems outrageous here and again it's not the Minnesota timberwol fault it's almost like the NBA we basically telling you from a FanDuel or a sports booking aspect is the season is too long doesn't make any sense and it absolutely doesn't matter what other sp
ort would have a team that would have this type of lead and close to a 10 to1 price to win its own conference it doesn't make any sense whatsoever other than the NBA regular season who cares about it it's a reset once the Playoff starts a half game lead for Minnesota for that top spot a nine-point victory last night for the Timberwolves now 2222 and Two Against the Spread as a favorite this year they laid 12 and a half at home last night one of the shortest pregame totals we had seen in the NBA
throughout this regular season 208 in a hook that's a playoff number barely trickles over for the t-wolves their first over in their four games since the All-Star break happy belated 25th birthday once again to Luca donic he rings in a new year with a victory last night in Toronto 136 125 to lead his Mavs and not just a victory but a 30p point 16 assist 11 rebound triple dou on his birthday the Mavericks bounced back they had one seven straight then dropped two in a row the heartbreaking defeat
against Cleveland two nights ago as Max spru hit the 59f footer at the buzzer to win Dallas though has won eight of its last 10 games they have covered in seven of those eight wins I'd say what was impressive about that and again just thinking your way through the process where there was a chance that Kyrie Irving Andor Luca donic would have sat that game out back Tob backs on the road we see it quite a bit here but also you didn't want that to happen here either a when you're on a winning strea
k or B about to go on a losing streak which would have turned into three games had they lost to the Toronto Raptors the thing that I thought was most impressive is typically on a back toback on the road is you don't have those legs available in the second half because you get tired they scored 66 points as a team in the first great should be able to cruise in and maybe have a chance at winning this game well they U the ante by scoring 70 points in the second half which included a third quarter l
ook man this is a fun team to watch donic and Kyrie Irving when they're going great one of the best tandems in basketball they went great last night picked up a victory here for the Dallas Mavericks we'll see where they go moving forward but it eluded that three- game losing streak that's what they wanted to do 59 combined points between Luca and Kyrie last year it didn't seem as though it would mesh all that well for the Mavs as of late it certainly has Lucas's fourpoint performances since the
All-Star break 41 in the opener against the Suns 33 against the Pacers on Sunday 454 and9 albe it in the devastating loss to Cleveland 306 and 11 yesterday against the Toronto Raptors who are not a great team they're 15 games below 500 at this moment but it won all three straight games since the All-Star break the last two outright as an underdog a big victory for Dallas Luca Remains the third betting favorite in terms of the NBA MVP odds at a 5 to1 number the Pacers looking to bounce back after
losing to the Raptors outright earlier this week and they do just that a number that stood out to both of us the RS second leg of a back-to-back for New Orleans on the road 123 114 the Pacers cover as a seven-point home favorite that's a good win for them too because we weren't taking the night off here for the Pelicans you Williamson Ingram Jones valent chunis and McCollum all in the starting lineup here that's a good win for the Pacers one of those teams that is a wild card in the East that's
a good victory for them last night and we thought the seven-point spread would be there because of the pels playing the second leg of a backtack and maybe not being at full health McCollum Ingram and Zion Williamson all score at least 23 points in the starting lineup and Indiana still gets a big win they' won three of four since the allstar break history in Minneapolis last night
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