You’ll be hard pressed to find anything positive going on with the Brooklyn Nets right now, they’ve lost 4 games in a row with 2 of those games happening vs the struggling Portland Trail Blazers. They now find themselves outside the play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference, something will have to change before the trade deadline for this team if they want to make it into the postseason this year. There is definitely potential on the roster, but they’re just not gelling as a team right now. A shin contusion might keep their best player Mikal Bridges out of tonight’s game against the Lakers, that’s just another injury blow that they’ve been dealt this season. Even with Bridges though, their chances of beating the Lakers aren’t that high. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives them just a 38% chance of winning here, while the oddsmakers have them as 6.5 point underdogs.
Back-to-back wins over Oklahoma City and Dallas have lifted the spirits of the Lakers players as they’re now back to .500 at 21-21 for the season. Their home form has been stellar at 15-7 SU, but you can’t rely on that come playoff time if you’re not going to have home court advantage. D’Angelo Russell has also stepped up his game lately, I’m expecting that to continue as he faces his former team here. Everything starts and ends with Anthony Davis and LeBron James though. The Nets have done a solid job this season defending the paint, giving up only the 2nd highest amount of points down low, so I’m curious to see how AD handles that. LA should also be encouraged by their recent performances from three-point land. They’ve upped their percentage of makes by 5% in their last 3 games, if that carries over to tonight’s game they’ll be fine.
