The Los Angeles Lakers have fallen on hard times of late with a 3-13 SU record over their last 16 games. The Lakers will play the familiar role of big underdog Thursday night when they visit the Miami Heat as a 12-point road dog.
Los Angeles Lakers vs Miami Heat betting, odds analysis, trends
Miami has dominated the Lakers lately against the spread, but Los Angeles has shown spunk as a road team and a dog lately. See the Odds Shark preview and pick.
Victor Decolongon
For as bad as things have been overall for the Lakers, the team has actually shown some fight as an underdog over the last couple of weeks. Los Angeles is 5-0 ATS over its last five games including outright road upsets over the Boston Celtics as a 7-point underdog and the Toronto Raptors as a 9-point underdog (per closing lines at 5Dimes.eu).
Mike D’antoni’s offense-first system has been clicking over that stretch with each of the Lakers’ last five games going OVER the posted total.
After losing three straight games for the first time since January of 2012, the Miami Heat have won three of their last four games while going 2-2 ATS over that stretch. With Dwyane Wade missing games and playing at less than 100% when he is in the lineup with a knee injury, the Heat have been out of sync at points this season.
Wade has missed each of Miami’s last three games and was held to just eight points in each of his last two appearances.
With Wade out or injured on the Miami side and Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash both sidelined for the Lakers, this Thursday night’s matchup between Miami and Los Angeles doesn’t figure to be one of the classics in the series.
Miami has dominated this head-to-head battle since the 2010-11 season with a 7-1 SU and 6-2 ATS record over the Lakers. Los Angeles hasn’t lost by more than 11 points in any of the last six meetings between these two teams though.
The total has gone UNDER in six of the last seven games between Miami and LA. If the Lakers can dictate the game with an up-tempo attack, they could cover the spread in a shootout style game.
But if Miami’s defense comes to play, the Lakers could have trouble keeping up on the road.
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