Game Time: 9:00 PM ET, Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 

Venue:   Footprint Center, Phoenix, Arizona 

Where to Watch: NBA TV

DraftKings:  Spread:  

Fanduel:  Spread:  Suns -11.5; O/U 231.5

BetMGM:  Spread: Suns -11.5

Lakers: 31-47, 11th place Western Conference

Suns: 62-16, 1st place Western Conference

An NBA Western Conference matchup between the dying and the reborn.  The Los Angeles Lakers have a 2% chance of making the pla-in game… one loss will destroy those chances… and they get to play the best team in the league and the #1 team in the West all at the same time!  The Lakers have LeBron James and he is the GOAT.  It isn’t even as close as all the MJ lovers insist.  But this is not the Goat’s year.  The Lakers also just got PF Anthony Davis back from injury… AD has not affected anything when it comes to winning as they lost both games he has shown his face in.  The Lakers also have SG Russell Westbrook… who simply can not shoot.. Good thing they owe him 47 million dollars next season.  That makes this terrible condition permanent.  This version of the Lakers are in critical condition and the priest is giving the last rights by the bedside.  Their only chance to save face is to close it down and come back healthy and better next season.  Their only chance to have something to point at would be LeBron getting another 38 point game to secure the scoring title over Joel Embiid.  The Phoenix Suns are the best TEAM in basketball… Memphis is close, but the Suns are better.  That is when we focus on a TEAM aspect of basketball play.  Star PG Chris Paul should not tough another basketball before the playoffs… he may but he shouldn’t.  Would it hurt against the Lakers?... No, the Suns backups are better than any point guard the Lakers have on the roster… all of them.  Sf Mikal Bridges for the Suns is the 4th option on offense but maybe the league’s top-three two way player… That makes the Sune better than awesome!  Yes, they have Deandre Ayton at Center who will blow the Lakers out of the water… and yes they have SG Devin Booker who is 90% Kobe Bryant… he scores, he wants to win, he is almost there.  

The Lakers face the nail in their coffin having won only two of their last 10 games.  They are on a 6-game losing streak right at the point that they were in contention for a play-in game.  They do not own their own pick this season… so the other team may get a great selection… that wasn’t expected when all; the trades were made.  They went 4-6 Atsd during that stretch.  As of now they have gotten PF Anthony Davis back from the injury list in time to drop LeBron James there. The team has no other players of any quality.  They actually have and play the black clouds of Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony… It’s great to be Hall of Fame bound while having never won anything.  That is the legacy of this team.  Sad isn’t the tip of the iceberg.  This fan base remembers when Kobe Bryant would leave his all on the stage in regular season games during the bad years.  No current Laker is willing to be Kobe Bryant… nor are they capable.

The Phoenix Suns have won 8 of their last ten games, but are on a two-game losing streak. They went 6-4 ATs during that stretch.  Recently they started resting starters for the playoffs… the team has that luxury since they are 5.5 games ahead of #2 and already have the all-time franchise record for wins in the bag if they only get one more of their last 4 games.  The bench for the Suns is better than the Starters for the Lakers… It has been proven in the numbers.  PG Cameron Payne, C JaVale McGee, and SG Landry Shamet.. Are all bench players for the Suns and they all would improve the Lakers by a lot.  The :akers two breakout players this season were unemployed last June.  SG Austin Reeves is an undrafted rookie and Sf Stanley Johnson is a draft bust of the Detroit Pistons…both are the best players on the roster not named LeBron James.  SG Russell Westbrook scores more… but shoots so badly and is never deterred that the team may want to give him a psychopath test.  Russell simply does not see anything wrong with shooting 9% from 3 since the all-star break and is still shooting!  Wow, this is a bad team.

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The Lakers are 31-47 on the season, but 32-45-1 ATS.  They have logged 44 Overs, 33 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are 11-27 on the road.  

The Suns are 62-16 on the season, but 42-36 ATS.  They have notched 40 Obvers, 37 Unders, and 1 Push.  They are an amazing 31-8 at home. They have a better home record than anyone else playing ball.

The Lakers are 12th in scoring with 111.6 ppg, 20th in rebounds with 43.9 per game, and 23rd in AST/TO ratio with 1.7.  On defense they rank 27th while allowing 114.8 ppg… on defense this team is terrible… They couldn’t hold a G-League team under 100.  That is a fact.  This team stinks on defense.  When the only teams you are better at on defense are Orlando, Detroit, and OKC… then defense isn’t really a discussion.

The Suns are 4th in scoring with 114.9 ppg, 11th in rebounds with 45 per game, and 3rd in AST/TO ratio with 2.1.  On defense they are ranked 9th while holding opponents to 107.1 ppg.  Defense is a strength…huh?

Our prediction for Tuesday, April 5th is…. Suns 135 - Lakers 110

The Suns will roll and roll.  The Lakers are dumbly dead… they are zombies on a mission to get to that fishing boat. The Suns do not have to play their starters to beat a Lakers team especially when LeBron is going to sit out… oh and if LeBron plays.. The result will be like the last six games LeBron has played… a loss. 

 

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Phoenix is 4-2 ATS versus the Lakers at Phoenix the last 3 seasons.
Phoenix is 10-5 ATS overall versus the Lakers the last 3 seasons.
9 of 15 games have gone Under in this series.

Suns: PF Frank Kamitsky ( knee) Out ** SF Dario Saric (knee) Out 

Lakers: SF LeBron James (ankle) Quest ** PG Kendrick Nunn Out

Suns: PF Cameron Johnson, SF Mikal Bridges, C JaVale McGee, PG Chris Paul, SG Landry Shamet 

Lakers: PF Anthony Davis, SF Malik Monk, C Dwight Howard, SG Russell Westbrook, PG Avery Bradley

Lakers: Frank “Dead Man Walking” Vogel

Suns: Monty Williams… the feel good story of the last two seasons.