LA Lakers vs Golden State Warriors betting tips and predictions NBA. The Warriors will be motivated after receiving their rings before the game, while LA’s focus will be on issues dealing with Westbrook’s behavior. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
LA Lakers
Instead of making headlines about how they will be competitive in the Western Conference this season, the stories coming out of Los Angeles have mostly been about disgruntled star Russell Westbrook and his behaviour in preseason games. After refusing to get into a huddle with the rest of his team during a game, it appears that Westbrook is having difficulties accepting a bench role which new head coach Darvin Ham has prepared for him.
LeBron James doesn’t need that kind of a distraction entering his 20th season, so if things get off to a poor start we could see the former MVP dealt very quickly. LA’s hopes of doing something big this year lie in the status of Anthony Davis who has been working on his game all summer according to the videos we saw online. Pressure is off the Lakers in the season opener against Golden State, they did beat the Warriors in preseason, so maybe they can pull off a surprise without too much pressure being on them here.
Golden State Warriors
Golden State also made headlines for the wrong seasons at the start of October as Draymond Green punched teammate Jordan Poole MMA-style after a disagreement in practice. As a result, Green has been away from the team since the incident, but he should be ready for the season opener and ring ceremony on Tuesday. Outside of that, the Warriors don’t really have any big issues inside the locker room.
The likes of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins are all ready to begin their title defence. The one issue this team could have early in the season is fatigue as their season went all the way until the end, which isn’t ideal when you have an aging starting five. The good news is younger players like Poole, James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and the rest are ready to play extended minutes early in the season to ease the load.
LA Lakers vs Golden State Warriors Predictions & Odds
I’m expecting a different game from the 124-121 Lakers win in the preseason where Davis had 28 points. Both teams should be at full strength and interestingly enough 3 of the 4 regular season meetings last season were competitive between these teams. The Lakers are coming off a 47-point loss in their final preseason game vs Sacramento, until the Westbrook situation gets resolved I’m not ready to back them. Go with the Warriors.
The Lakers defensive habits haven’t changed much compared to last season when their defensive rating was one of the worst in the entire NBA. During preseason they allowed an average of 118.3 points per game and in their final game the Kings put up 133 on them.
That kind of effort simply won’t get it done and if they don’t improve quickly they will be in a lot of trouble. All 4 regular season meetings last year were high scoring and I’m expecting more of the same in the season opener. The preseason meeting played last week saw a total of 245 points which says all you need to know before this game. Expect a lot of points to be scored here, so back the over.
