The Warriors were written off before the season has even started after the devastating injury to Klay Thompson. They battled through adversity thanks to the stellar, MVP-caliber play of their perennial superstar point guard Steph Curry who won the NBA Scoring title for the second time in his career. The Veteran leadership of Curry and Draymond Green mixed well with the raw untapped talent of guys like Andrew Wiggins, James Wiseman, and Juan Toscano-Anderson, lets see if they can transfer that to the playoffs.
Los Angeles Lakers betting preview
The Lakers have the same core of players they won the finals with in 2020, but at the trade deadline, they picked up some key players, and throughout the season, they picked up some talented veteran players. The move that stuck out to me the most was the acquisitions of Ben Mclemore and Andre Drummond. Ben plays valuable minutes off the bench and adds a unique scoring skillset to the already talented Lakers, and Drummond continues to be one of the fiercest rebounders in the game. With Lebron James and Anthony Davis back for this play-in game, look for the Lakers to attack the small-ball Warriors in and around the paint all game.
The Lakers have played the Warriors three times this season and have won two of those matchups, and in both wins, they covered a 5 point spread and held Curry to only 23 points per matchup. The Lakers ended the season covering in three of their last five games since getting their two superstars back, but let’s see if they can make it four of their last six.
Golden State Warriors betting preview
The Warriors excelled in a year they were supposed to be embarrassed by the stacked western conference. Steph Curry and his 32 points per game led the Warriors to the 8th seed and a chance to make the playoffs and play either the Suns or the Jazz in the first round. The Warriors were driven down the stretch of crunchtime basketball by their veterans Draymond Green, Steph Curry, and Kevon Looney, who led them to win their final six straight regular-season games heading into this game.
The Warriors have covered the spread only once against the Lakers, but the over has hit in every game they’ve played against each other. So the Warriors are 1-2 against the spread against the Lakers but 3-0 in hitting the over when playing the Lakers. This is going to have a playoff basketball feel to it, so unless Curry, Lebron, and Davis all go for 30+ points, I don’t know if I trust the over in this one.
Los Angeles vs. Golden State odds and lines
(Sportsbook here) opened the odds with the Lakers favored by 5.5 points with the over/under set at 226.5.
Free pick of the night
My free pick of the night is Golden State +5.5, with the odds set at -112.