The stumbling Los Angeles Lakers look to avoid a third straight loss when they play host to the Denver Nuggets tonight.

While the Nuggets are sitting at a mediocre 19-16 overall record, they've been playing some decent basketball lately and it really showed when they were able to snap the Clippers' 17-game win streak on Tuesday. Unfortunately, they had a bit of a letdown loss against the shorthanded Timberwolves a couple nights after, but they bounced back in fine fashion with a dominant 110-91 win over the Jazz last night. Danilo Gallinari had a game-high 26 points, Andre Iguodala had 18 and Kenneth Faried added 15 points and 10 boards to round out the scoring for the Nuggets who have won four of their last six.

Meanwhile, with three losses in their last four outings, things aren't looking too good for the second best team in LA. Kobe Bryant tried the carry the team on his back with 38 points on 15 of 25 shooting, while Dwight Howard had 21 points and 15 rebounds, but the Lakers just fell short in the end, losing by 107-102 to Chris Paul's Clippers. You can say that the loss was somewhat of a moral victory because the Lakers were down by 16 points to start the fourth and almost pulled out the win, but they're still a step behind the Clippers and will have to get more from Pau Gasol who had just two points in the game and just doesn't seem to fit in coach D'Antoni's system.

In ATS trends the Nuggets are:

5-1 ATS in their last six games against sub .500 teams

10-4 ATS in their last 14 games overall

1-4 ATS in their last five games following a win

In ATS trends the Lakers are:

1-4 ATS in their last five games following a loss

3-8 ATS in their last 11 games playing on one day of rest

1-4 ATS in their last five home games against teams with a losing road record

Head to head:

The home team is 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings

The favorite is 4-0 ATS in the last four meetings

With Dwight Howard a confirmed starter for tonight's game, the line has finally been released and the Lakers are favored by five points at home. LA have actually won 21 of the last 25 meetings at Staples and despite the signs of improvement they showed me against the Clippers, I still can't pick them with confidence against the Nuggets tonight. Take the visitors with the points in this one.

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