Scott Spreitzer
Iowa
Special K
7* Minnesota Gophers +8
Cowtown
3* Cincy -16
3* Santa Barbra -7
Passing Football
DAVID MALINSKY
4* SAN ANTONIO/L.A. LAKERS UNDER 198.5
This is a high line for two outstanding teams that take pride in defense in a showdown game, and note that in the four Lakers/Spurs head-to-head matchups LY they produced counts of 190, 190, 175 and 181. So what gives here? The schedule, that is what. And some situations we have been patiently waiting for are now in front of us.
The Lakers have been near the top of our best offensive ratings for most of the season, despite the fact that they are not a difficult team to guard these days – Derek Fisher and Ron Artest are only minor half-court threats, and Lamar Odom is nothing special on that end. Yes, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are top-flight, but against quality opponents the fact that others do not have to be guarded so closely enables help to arrive on the two weapons. The key word there is “quality”. The Lakers have only played five games all season against teams that are more than a game above .500, with their difficulty of opposition dead last by a wide margin on our charts. And how have they fared when stepping up? We can discount the 112 at Denver a bit because of the tempo the Nuggets play at. But in the other four games, twice vs. Chicago, and also vs. Miami and Utah, they averaged only averaged 89.5 points, and the four games played Under by a collective 62.5, or 15.6 per game below the projections. That does not change here, with San Antonio having plenty of time to put a game plan together, and we know how good Gregg Popovich can be with that time available.
But the Lakers are going to make their stops here. They had what Phil Jackson called a “feisty” set of practices after being embarrassed by the Heat on Christmas day, and we can expect a high level of intensity on the defense end, with eight of the last nine opponents being held to 98 or less, including four that were held in the 80’s. And while the Spurs have been solid on offense so far also note how much of a part the schedule has played – we rate their collective opponents #27, so much like what the Lakers have done, their savvy veterans have been able to out-execute bad defenses. That does not happen on either end of the court tonight, so the misleading scoring statistics bring us outstanding value.
RAS
Long Beach State/UC Santa Barbara Under 140
Cal Sports
4* Bulls
4* Seton Hall
3* Riverside
OC Dooley
5 Units Iowa
2 Units Vikings
KELSO
10 Units Eagles -14
10 Units Missouri -2.5
3 Units NCST +3
25 Units St Bonnie -4.5
10 Units Pepperdine +15.5
3 Units Sam Houston St -2.5
EXECUTIVE
300% CS Fullerton -1.5
Sports Unlimited
Iowa