Game Time: 9:00 PM ET, Sunday, March 13th, 2022 

Venue:  Footprint Center, Phoenix, Arizona

Where to Watch: ESPN

DraftKings:  Spread:  Suns -8.5; O/U 229.5

Fanduel:  Spread:  Suns -8 O/U 230

BetMGM:  Spread: Suns -8.5; O/U 229.5

Lakers: 29-37, 9th place Western Conference

Suns: 53-14, 1st place Western Conference

A Western Conference matchup between the conference leader and the conference disappointment.  It’s hard to imagine how quickly the Lakers fell from the Championship to afterthought especially considering they still have Lebron James and LeBron James is threatening for the scoring title.  The Lakers saga has entered the level of pure soap opera.  The GM doesn’t know what he is doing and it is obvious with every move.  He massively overpaid for Anthony Davis who has an injury history that could have easily predicted his future.  AD is the player that can’t play a full season and could go down at any time.  I know, I know… Rob Pelinka was assuaging LeBron when he traded an entire team plus picks for a single player.  The move also created a Championship so it was worth it… but Pelinka kept feeling the need to get stuff done to keep LeBron happy.  He traded or waived another entire team to land PG Russell Westbrook… now Russ is on his 4th team in 4 years and simply not playing well… he didn’t advertise another ring when he was playing with virtually all the same stats with the Washington Wizards last season… but Rob gave up SF Kyle Kuzma, PF Montrezl Harrell, and SG Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.. All guys they desperately need now… in the process of fitting Russ Pelinka then let Alex Caruso walk… Caruso is injured in Chicago now… but when he played… played great!  Plus wasn’t there a pick included?!!  All the blame can’t fall on Rob however… he does have a boss.  That boss is Jeannie Buss.  Jeannie is not the visionary that her father was… in fact she often sits back and simply reacts to problems with her team… seemingly in a constant state of passing the blame.  She let her brother Jim Buss, prior to Rob Pelinka sign huge contracts with bad mid-level free agents… if it weren’t for LeBron selecting the Lakers out of the Blue… Jeannie would simply have nothing to show for her time as the Lakers owner.  The Phoenix Suns have a bad owner also… at least he put others in charge and stepped back.  The team that was assembled in Phoenix through the draft grew slowly but perfectly SG Devin Booker, C Deandre Ayton, SF Mikal Bridges… The last minute additions of PG Chris Paul and PF Jae Crowder pushed the Suns over the top.  The Suns are now the class of the league on the court.  They have the most wins.  They will have to finish the last month of the season without CP3, but have all the tools they need to keep the 1st place spot and welcome Chris back in time for the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers have won only 3 of their last ten games.  Going 4-5-1 ATS during that stretch.  The Lakers hit rock bottom on March 9th when the Houston Rockets, the worst team in the league, came into Crypto.com arena and beat the Lakers 139-130.  The Rockets landed the killing punch in Overtime when they scored 19 points in 5 minutes.  This horrible Laker play seems to hint that even if and when AD comes back from injury.. They probably don’t have enough of anything outside of LeBron and AD to get any meaningful playoff wins.   The two break out players for the Lakers this season are SG/SF Austin Reeves and SF/PF Stanley Johnson… both guys were unemployed from basketball when the season started.  Austin was an undrafted free agent rookie… while Stanley was a draft bust who was waiting by his phone for another chance.  The Lakers roster is bad… the combination of Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, and Russelll Westbrook does nothing to impact winning.  The old Lakers are shot fighters.  Russ and Carmelo are proving that even after almost two decades in the NBA some guys simply never get used to playing defense.

The Phoenix Suns have won 6 of their last ten games.  They went 3-6-1 ATS.  The Suns are absolutely not worried about your point spread.  They are missing Chris Paul and the Suns have 1 mission… win above .500 til season’s end and hold onto that #1 spot.  They are accomplishing it so far.  They won 3 of their last 5 games… taking L’s from the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks.  During that Bucks game though SG Devin Booker had to sit out with Covid.. He is back now,,, he is knocking off the rust… and the winning will continue.  A worry the Suns have added is PF Cam Johnson has missed 4 games with a right quad contusion… he is a valuable bench player.  Cam hits threes and has the size to defend post players. He is needed.

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The Lakers are 29-37 on the season, but 28-37-1 ATS.  They have logged 36 Overs, 29 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 9-21 in road games.  The Lakers do not travel well.  One of the problems of course is that vets like their own beds and undrafted rookies get weak in the knees in front of 20,000 booing fans.

The Suns are 53-14 on the season, but 35-32 ATS.  They have notched 33 Overs, 33 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 28-8 in home games.

The Lakers are 12th in scoring with 111.1 ppg, 16th in rebounds with 44.4 per game, and 23rd in AST/TO ratio with 1.6.  They rank 26th on defense while allowing 113.2 ppg from opponents.

The Suns are 5th in scoring with 113.6 ppg, 7th in rebounds with 45.5 per game, and 2nd in AST/To ratio with 2.1.  On defense they rank 6th while holding opponents to 106 ppg.

Our prediction for Sunday, March 13th is…. Suns 128 - Lakers 104

The Suns will roll the Lakers.  The Suns are worried about not having CP3… but against a defense this bad, Devin Booker (who always gets up for Laker games) will go off for 40.  Also, LeBron has been playing a lot of Center… that’s Deandre Ayton on the other side, not Christain Wood.

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Phoenix is 34-29 ATS vs Lakers since 1996
Phoenix is 9-5 versus Lakers the last 3 seasons.
Phoenix is 52-30 ATS after having won 2 of their last 3 games, the last 3 seasons.

Lakers: PF Anthony Davis (ankle) Out ** PG Kendrick Nunn (ankle) Out

Suns: PG Chris Paul (thumb) Out ** PF Cam Johnson (quad) Quest

Lakers: PF Stanley Johnson, SF Austin Reeves, C LeBron James, SG Russell Westbrook, PG Malik Monk

Suns: SF Mikal Bridges, PF Jae Crowder, C Deandre Ayton, SG Devin Booker, PG Cameron Payne

Lakers

Points: LeBron James 29.7

Assists: Russell Westbrook 7.2

Rebounds: Anthony Davis 9.7

Steals: LeBron James 1.5

Blocks: Anthony Davis 2.3

Suns

Points: Devin Booker 25.5

Assists: Chris Paul 10.7

Rebounds: Deandre Ayton 9.9

Steals: Chris Paul 1.9

Blocks: JaVale McGee 1.1

Lakers: Frank Vogel

Suns: Monty Williams