Los Angeles Lakers vs Los Angeles Clippers betting tips and predictions for Tuesday’s NBA game on TNT. With both teams on 2-game win streaks, the Lakers and Clippers square off for the 3rd time this season in what is known as the “Battle of LA” game. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Los Angeles Lakers
With 2 wins in a row and 3 in their last 4 games, the Lakers are catching steam just at the right time. They trailed by as many as 25 points at the half against the Blazers in their last game, but thanks to 37 points from Lebron James and 31 from Thomas Bryant, they were able to come back and beat the Blazers by 9 in the end. It was the biggest comeback in the career of Lebron James, so you can imagine how big of a win that was for the Lakers.
Now they have to back it up with a win over their cross-town rivals though, a team they’ve lost to twice already this season. The Lakers couldn’t get going offensively in either of those games, scoring just 97 and 101 points. Will things be different tonight? I think so. The Lakers are technically the home team here, so they will look to push the pace. They come into the game in good spirits having covered the spread 4 times in their last 5 games.
Los Angeles Clippers
Head-to-head stats are on the side of the Clippers here. They’ve covered the spread 9 times in the last 10 meetings, plus they are currently on a 9-game win streak against the purple and gold. In games played where the Lakers are the hosts, the Clippers are on a run of 11 straight games in which they’ve covered the spread.
Combine that with the fact that both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are ready to play here, they have a pretty decent chance at extending their win streak to 3 games in a row. Leonard has stringed together back-to-back 30 point performances, he is playing arguably his best basketball since returning from a knee injury. His Clippers are 19-10 SU in games where they are the favorite, tonight they open with a 4-point spread.
That comeback vs Portland must have wasted a ton of energy out of these Lakers, so it will be interesting to see how they respond in tonight’s game. I have the Clippers covering here, they are much more talented on paper, plus Kawhi will be able to lock down Lebron James. Back the road team to cover.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Los Angeles Clippers Predictions & Odds
Scoring wise I think we can definitely expect more points than in the previous two meetings this season, but I still think the two teams will be short on tonight’s projected total of 234 points. We’ve seen the Clippers defense in full effect in their last game as they held Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks to just 98 points, so even the high scoring Lakers could struggle a bit here. The last 10 meetings have averaged just 215.1 points per game with the under cashing 5 times during that stretch.
Against Western Conference opponents, the Clippers have gone under the total in 8 of 11 games recently. It’s a similar scenario in games vs teams from their own division where they are 9-1 on the under in their last 10 games. Despite being one of the highest paced teams in the league, the Lakers have gone under in 6 of 7 games, I think that run continues tonight, so let’s back the under.
