Los Angeles Lakers vs Atlanta Hawks betting tips and predictions for Friday’s NBA game at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers have an opportunity to push their win streak to 4 games as they host the Hawks who have just 7 wins in 19 road games this season. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Los Angeles Lakers
After missing the game against the Miami Heat due to illness, Lebron James might be back for tonight’s game against the Hawks which would be a major boost offensively. Although they beat the heat 112-109, the Lakers did struggle a bit on offense and had to turn to Dennis Schroder and Russell Westbrook to lead them. Long term that is not sustainable, so getting James could be a deciding factor in tonight’s game. He had 47 against the Hawks in the 1st meeting of the season, and over his 8 games he’s averaging 35.1 per game. Anthony Davis is yet to come back, he is expected some time during the 2nd half of January. The Lakers have a strong record of 7 wins and 3 losses at home over their last 10, they’ve also covered the spread in 4 of their last 6 vs Eastern Conference teams.
Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta comes off an important win at Sacramento 120-117 in their last game, which ended a 4-game losing streak. The win swept the season series from the Kings, thanks to 4 starters scoring over 20 points which is a rare sight these days in any Hawks games. Usually it’s Trae Young and Dejounte Murray leading the charge offensively, but when this team plays like a unit they are hard to beat. The odds will be stacked against them tonight though, they are just 6-10 SU as underdogs this season, plus on the road they’ve covered the spread just 7 times in 19 games. They’ve also not had a good time when playing the Lakers over the past few years winning just 3 of the last 13 meetings. At crypto.com Arena they have just 1 win dating back to the 2015-16 season. Once again they’ll be without Clint Capela, but that won’t make much of a difference as the Lakers are also missing their starting center AD.
The outcome of this game depends on the status of Lebron James. Assuming he comes back I really like the Lakers in this spot. They beat Atlanta a week ago on the road, they should have very little issues doing so once again in front of the home fans. Take LA with confidence.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Atlanta Hawks Predictions & Odds
We saw 251 points produced in the 1st meeting of the season played last week in Atlanta. James exploded for 47 points, the Hawks roster just isn’t built to take on such a strong player on the inside, especially not with Capela being out of the line-up. The last 4 of 5 Atlanta games saw 237, 284, 251 and 243 points scored, so that trend could very well continue in tonight’s game. This team just doesn’t care about the defensive end, they are only 23rd in rebounding this year averaging just 48.8 per game. That’s not a good sign for a team that plays at the 8th fastest pace. The Lakers are 2nd in pace averaging 104.3 possessions per game and with the last 3 meetings averaging 251 points per game, there’s a very high chance we surpass the total tonight as well. Back the over.
