Golden State Warriors vs LA Lakers Prediction & Betting Odds

The second game on the opening night of the NBA 22/23 season sees Warriors take on Lakers in the Chase Center. Plenty of eyes will be on this matchup as we look to see if reigning champions Golden State Warriors can get their title defence off to winning ways, whilst four time NBA MVP LeBron James will be hopeful his 20th season in the NBA gets off on the right foot.

Losing a preseason game by 47 points to the Sacramento Kings has left me questioning the Lakers’ effort. Sure, it’s just a preseason game, but when you’re wearing the purple and gold you have a certain reputation. Going into the new season, expectations are once again high among the LA faithful, whether or not that is realistic remains to be seen.

LeBron James enters his 20th season after averaging over 30 points last year, it’ll be interesting to see if he can continue playing so well even at the age of 37. We all saw the Anthony Davis videos this offseason, the big man is expected to finally put together a season in which he doesn’t miss a ton of games through injury. And then there’s the Russell Westbrook saga, nobody knows how he will deal with the bench role, so things are quite turbulent in the Lakers locker room at the moment.

You could say the same about the Golden State Warriors too actually, especially after the incident in practice between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole. That incident has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many around the Warriors and rumors are already starting to circulate how Green wants to be moved. For a team whose season went all the way into mid-June, that’s something they could have gone without to start the season.

Fatigue could be an issue early in the season, but thankfully younger players like Poole, Wiseman and Kuminga are ready for increased roles to make things easier. Golden State is known for playing well at home, they’ve won 13 out of 14 games, while against the Lakers they are 14-4 SU in the last 18 meetings at Chase Center.

Getting that championship banner up in the rafters before tip-off should be a motivating factor for the Warriors here. They are clearly a much better team than the Lakers are and with all the drama around Westbrook I think Golden State comes out on top here. Back the Warriors to cover the spread in the opener.

Warriors -5.5 Point Spread is available at time of publishing.

We enjoyed some really high scoring games in all 4 meetings played between these two teams last season and their preseason clash last week ended with 245 points scored. The Lakers have a reputation for being really bad on defense, the numbers from last year back that up. Until I see them build good habits on that side of the ball I can’t see them getting any stops down the stretch.

The total has gone over in 9 of the Lakers last 13 games overall, including 8 of their last 10 vs Pacific Division teams. Golden State should have a field day scoring the ball here, last season they scored at least 116 points in all 4 games vs the Lakers and over 120 points twice. I can’t imagine a lot of defense will be played on opening night, the two teams will look to put on a show for the fans at Chase Center so let’s go with the over in this one.

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