Frank Lorenzo
Los Angeles Lakers at San Antonio Spurs (-14, 196.5 o/u)
The San Antonio Spurs (27-17) are heavy favorites in their tilt with the Los Angeles Lakers (12-31) tonight (8:30 p.m. Eastern at the AT&T Center).
After appearing to regain their championship form in recent days, the Spurs suffered a setback last night, getting man-handled by the Chicago Bulls, 101-81, on National TV.
“We just played embarrassing basketball,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. “I want my money back.”
The loss put an end to San Antonio’s four-game winning streak, and moved them four games back of Memphis for top spot in the Southwest Division.
Tonight, the aging Spurs will be playing their third game in four nights (having downed the Nuggets 109-99 on Tuesday, covering as seven-point favorites).
Fortunately for the Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers are in town. The Lakers own the fourth-worst record in the NBA and have lost six games in a row.
Making matters worse for L.A., leading scorer Kobe Bryant suffered a torn rotator cuff in the second half of Wednesday night’s 96-80 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans; “Black Mamba” will sidelined for tonight’s game and many more to come.
“It felt fine when I went up, didn’t feel too good when I came down,” Bryant said after the game.
The silver lining for the Lakers is that both Carlos Boozer (triceps) and Nick Young (thumb) are probable for tonight.
San Antonio is currently a 14-point favorite over Los Angeles. The Spurs have beaten the Lakers straight-up in eight of their last ten meetings; they have also covered in seven of those.
(Photo credit: Keith Allison [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
