STAY AWAY FROM LA!

Last night I was reminded why I don't bet on the Lakers spreads this year. The Clippers not only covered that spread (+5), but beat up the Lakers 102-91. Now the Lakers are still 28-7, but for an elite team, they have not been convincing their dominance. They are 15-20 Against the Spread, and have a bad tendency to look past the struggling teams in the league. Example: Sacramento is 14-20. They have lost 6-7 of their last games. They've had it rough, with their two leading scorers out for weeks. Sacramento had LA by the balls BOTH times they played.


Game 1 ended after double OT, and the kings had the ball with 15 seconds left in regulation, tie game. Instead of moving the ball to get a shot, Tyreke Evans forced it up, bricked, and eventually they hemorrhaged a 7 point OT1 lead as well.

Game 2 ended 109-108, with Kobe pulling off the shove in the final seconds before nailing that        LAST SECOND 3. 

According to Tim Donaghy's book, (the gambling ref): If Kobe Bryant had two fouls in the first or second quarter and went to the bench, one referee would tell the other two, "Kobe's got two fouls. Let's make sure that if we call a foul on him, it's an obvious foul, because otherwise he's gonna go back to the bench. If he is involved in a play where a foul is called, give the foul to another player."

Even with star treatment, the Lakers are having a difficult time putting away teams they should handle. Now I'm not saying they're bad.... But I'm not taking a single spread on the Lakers this season. W/L maybe, but careful with them.