The 45-37 LA Lakers will travel in their Game 1 of their best of seven NBA playoff series pro basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon. Tip off time from San Antonio is scheduled for 3:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ABC.
The NBA playoff odds from this game one of this series has the home club San Antonio Spurs favored by -8 ½ points with an over under line of 192 ½ points. Early money from the bettors has not moved this point spread or total.
The Spurs and Lakers have met three times this season with San Antonio winning two of the three games. The Lakers covered the point spread in two of the meetings. Each game played under the total.
The Lakers have a road record of 16-25 on the season. LA had to play hard down the stretch as the clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. The Lakers earned their playoff berth by winning five straight and eight of their past nine games with a home win against San Antonio in that span. The Lakers had some good numbers on offense as they connected on 45.8% of their shots and put up 102.2 points a game ranking in the top two of the league. They are a below average three point shooting team and is the worst free throw shooting team in the NBA by making just 69.2% from the charity stripe. The Lakers are far from an elite team on account of their defense. The team struggles in transition and allows 101 points a game to opponents ranking 22nd in the league in scoring defense. The Lakers lost Kobe Bryant for the season on April 12th. They faced two playoff teams without Kobe winning both games and allowing an average of 88 points in regulation in those two games. They allowed no greater than 41.7% shooting since losing Kobe Bryant.
The Spurs are 35-6 playing on their home court. San Antonio was competing with Oklahoma City for best record in the Western conference and fell short by losing seven of their past ten games to close the regular season. A key loss in that span was a 100-88 defeat at Oklahoma City on April 4th. San Antonio enters the playoffs 0-7 in their past seven road games. The Spurs put up good offensive numbers this season ranking in the top five of the NBA in all four key areas which are points a game, field goal, three point and free throw shooting. On defense the Spurs allow 96.6 points a game ranking 11th in scoring defense. The Spurs have been banged up with Manu Ginobili missing ten of the team’s final eleven games. Rotational player in Tiago Splitter is probable with an injury and Boris Diaw who is also in the playing rotation will be out for most of this series.
