Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers - 11/26/13

Los Angeles Lakers (7-7) at Washington Wizards (5-8)

NBA Basketball: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:00 pm (Verizon Center)

The Line: Washington Wizards -5.5 -- Over/Under: 199 See the Latest Odds

TV:

John Wall and the Washington Wizards play host to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night from the nations capital.

Head to head, the Lakers are 1-4-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings and 9-3-1 ATS in the last 13 meetings in Washington while the road team is 5-1-1 ATS in the last 7 meetings and underdog is 4-1-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings. The Wizards are 11-4 ATS in their last 15 home games, 22-8-1 ATS in their last 31 vs. Western Conference and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 home games vs. a team with a road winning % of less than .400. The Lakers on the other hand are 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 games overall, but just 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games vs. a team with a winning % below .400 and 18-37-1 ATS in their last 56 road games.

Finally the Washington Wizards are starting to play some good basketball. Thanks to some breakout scoring games from John Wall, the Wizards come into tonight's contest having won three of their last four and are starting to resemble the team that many picked to finish with one of the final playoffs spots in the Eastern Conference. After allowing opponents to score over 100 points in each of their first 10 games, Washington has held their last three opponents under 97 points, which is one of the reasons for the turnaround. The other, John Wall, who is coming off season-highs of 37 and 31 points in his last two outings. If he can continue to improve and with the emergence of Bradley Beal, the Wizards could soon form the top backcourt in the entire NBA.

The Los Angeles Lakers also come into tonight's game in their best form to date, riding a three-game winning to improve to .500 for the first time this season. All of their recent wins have come at home, where they improved to 6-3 following their comfortable 100-86 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night. Although it looked like the Lakers were going to be a train wreck defensively at the start of the season, they have improved in that area over the last couple of weeks, holding seven of their last 10 opponents under 100 points.

While the Lakers sure do look good at home, that's not necessarily the case when they hit the road as they have lost four of their five road games to date, straight up and against the spread, with the only win in that time coming in Houston. No doubt it's an impressive win, but Los Angeles had extra motivation in that game and the Rockets weren't playing good at the time. Meanwhile, the Wizards have been pretty good at home recently and I think they will start playing like the team that finished off last season. Not in love with this one by any stretch, but I think the home team pulls away in the end...

Dan’s Pick: Washington -5.5

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