Los Angeles Lakers vs Washington Wizards NBA Picks, Odds, Predictions 2/22/21
2021-02-22 22:00:00 EDT
The Washington Wizards and the Los Angeles Lakers duke it out at the Staples Center on Monday night.
The Washington Wizards have come to life lately as they’ve won five of their past seven games and they will be gunning for a season-high fifth straight victory after taking down the Trailblazers in a 118-111 road win on Saturday. Bradley Beal led the team with 37 points on 16 of 27 shooting, Russell Westbrook racked up a triple-double of 27 points with 11 rebounds and 13 assists while Rui Hachimura chipped in with 17 points. As a team, the Wizards shot 50 percent from the field and a miserly six of 26 from the 3-point line as they looked in trouble after allowing 43 points in the first quarter and falling behind by 14 points, before rallying in the fourth quarter where they held the red-hot Trailblazers to just 19 points to escape with the win in a see-saw affair.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers are going through a bit of a rough patch as they were rolling before dropping three of their last four games and they will be hoping to bounce back after Saturday’s 96-94 loss to the Heat. Kyle Kuzma led the tam with 23 points on eight of 21 shooting, LeBron James added 19 points with nine rebounds and nine assists while Montrezl Harrell chipped in with 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. As a team, the Lakers shot just 39 percent from the field and 13 of 45 from the 3-point line as were slow out of the gates and quickly found themselves trailing by 15 points early, before falling just short in the fourth quarter as they couldn’t get over the hump despite trailing by just two with 1:28 remaining.
Looking at the betting trends, the Wizards are 5-1 ATS in their last six games against a team with a winning record and 4-0 ATS in their last four games overall. The Lakers are 1-5 ATS in their last six home games, 1-5 ATS in their last six games against a team with a losing record and 2-6 ATS in their last eight games overall.
Head to head, the under is 4-1 in the last five meetings overall and the under is 5-1 in the last six meetings in Los Angeles.
The Lakers will once again be without the services of Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroder which has really hurt them over their last four games and they look to be catching the Wizards at just the wrong time as they have suddenly caught fire after a horrendous start to the season. I want to believe that the Lakers have the troops to easily overcome the Wizards and their porous defense, but instead, I think the Wizards will see this as a great opportunity to take down a wounded Lakers lineup. This should be a close one, but I’m taking the Wizards to pull off the upset in this one.
