Why are Lakers only -2?
0-3 on the Road
out of gas from last night
UT is 5-0 at home
WHY?
6 of 1/half a dz
* LA blitzed the Jazz, 96-71, at Staples Center back on Dec. 27 but has lost nine of 14 in Salt Lake. Bryant, meanwhile, has scored 40-plus six times in his career against the Jazz.
Lakers were missing some of their bench yesterday. Kobe played like he was 22 again. Unfortunately when he wakes up today, he won't feel like it!
The Suns hung around last night and when their shooting went cold, the Lakers were able to pull away thanks to Kobe's 48 point effort and to a small extent the inside presence of Gasol and Bynum. I mean, late in the fourth, when you're starting to get tired, it's hard to get position to grab boards against 7-footers, when you're rimming and air-balling shots. Wish the Suns had pushed the ball more than they did, earlier in the game. I guess as good as they are, Hill and Nash aren't the young bucks they used to be.
Anyway, right now, do I think Jazz > Suns? Don't you? I hope Luke Walton logs a half-game's worth of minutes again and continues to contribute the whopping 14 points combined from the bench. The tipping point in this game I think will be the Lakers missing Odom. In their four games last season he averaged 14.25 points off the bench. That average is more than the output from Blake, World Peace and Wally from last night's game.
Anyway, last season the Lakers were 6-4-1 against the spread on Wednesday nights. Nothing spectacular. The Lakers were -1 favs for the first game @ Utah early in the season (which the lost), and -8 favs for the second game @ Utah (which they covered).
Does Kobe pop another 40 plus points? Against the Jazz, if he's done it 6-times as noted, why not? But, I think the short spread here might be Vegas banking on a deceiving Lakers score from last night and IMO missing Odom off the bench will hurt the Lakers chances of winning this game.
Just my opinion. Good luck Goinggone - Barkley was good on SNL in the TNT bit.