NBA: San Antonio Spurs VS Los Angeles Lakers Pick and Predictions 11/20/2022

Game: 9:40 PM ET,  Sunday, November 20th, 2022

Venue: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles Lakers

Where to Watch: NBA LEAGUE PASS

Spurs: 6-10, 13th place Western Conference

Lakers: 4-10, 14th place Western Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread: Lakers -7; O/U 229.5
PointsBet: Point Spread: Lakers -7; O/U 229.5

Fanduel: Point Spread: Lakers -7; O/U 229.5

Spurs: PF Jeremy Sochan, SF Keita Bates-Diop, C Jakob Poeltl, SG Devin Vassell, PG Tre Jones

Lakers: PF Lonnie Walker IV, SF Troy Brown JR, C Anthony Davis, SG Austin Reeves, PG Patrick Beverley

An NBA matchup that was once the most celebrated and hotly contested in Western Conference history… for TWO DECADES… the battle between the Spurs and Lakers often determined who would win the NBA Finals… it showcased players like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neil, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol… Hell, Big Shot Bob (Mr Robert Horry) spent time on both these squads nabbing rings at each stop!  It was always hotly anticipated… it always came with thunder and lightning!  Now?.... Now they are just two of the worst teams in the league… Let alone two of the worst teams in the Western Conference.  The Spurs have been in a very tough rebuild for a few seasons now… so tough that they essentially started over by trading away their best player PG Dejounte Murray… The Goal is obvious… The Spurs NEED to land C Victor Wembemyama by securing the first pick in the coming NBA draft… or they will have almost no way out of the next decade of small market irrelevance.  The Los Angeles Lakers have NO EXCUSE.  The Los Angeles Lakers are currently worse than the Spurs by 2 FEWER wins… Plus the Lakers have no chance at a good draft pick this year as they owe their pick to the New Orleans Pelicans NO MATTER WHERE IT FALLS!  The Pelicans (who are good) have the right to swap.  If the Lakers do lose enough and get “lucky” enough to win the #1 pick in the draft?... The Anthony Davis trade of 3 seasons ago immediately becomes one of the worst in league history! The Lakers essentially built the current Pelicans playoff roster with a very generous trade of players and picks (so generous the Pelicans got to bungle 2 of the draft picks with more on the way)... the Lakers got a “bubble Championship” on the back of LeBron.  The Lakers do have one thing going for them though… the move of PG Russell Westbrook from the starting line-up (a suggestion made in these pages before the season started) to sixth man has improved his game…Now how do they improve the games of the dozens nobodies that are teammates of LeBron, AD and Russ?

The San Antonio Spurs have lost 3 games in a row.  They lost the last game to the Sacramento Kings (they play the Clippers Sat night before this prediction applies on Sunday) 130-112.  It was not as close as the final score implies since the Kings took the chance to rest the starters after a big, big lead.  SG Devin Vassell led the way for the Spurs with 29 points… but no one really followed him through the door.  SG Devin Vassell is essentially now the Spurs best player since the trade of Dejounte… That is alarming because of Devin’s consistent poor showing on the +/- scale… His back court mate PG Tre Jones… also has bad +/- numbers most nights… added 15 points.  The guards are simply working too hard for no results… The forwards are not stepping up either to score or to stop consistently.  The one glaring thing about the Spurs is they all seem to be nursing, bruises, sprains, hyper-whatsits, contusions, sore backs, belly’s on the move… you name it they have had a revolving door to the trainer’s table.  

The Los Angeles Lakers are on a 2-game winning streak!  They last beat the worst team in the league, the Detroit Pistons, 128-121… just narrowly covering a 6 point spread.  Why a big 6-point spread?... Because the Pistons were missing their two best players from what was already the worst team in the league!  Antony Davis got 38 points and 16 rebounds while playing a team that had no true starting center because of injury… he also gave up 12 points and 8 rebounds to Rookie Jalen Duran in 20 minutes of play. Russel Westbrook had 10 points and 12 assists… an assist number so good it covered up that he shot terribly from the field.  SG Aaustin Reeves had his best night on the season… he scored 16 points with 4 rbs and 6 asts… and did not have to play much defense… which he is not good at.

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SAA: 6-10, 9-7 ATS, 7-8-1 O/U, 3-5 on the road.

LAL: 4-10, 4-10 ATS, 8-6 O/U, 4-5 in home games.
The Lakers are 0-2 ATS as a favorite this season.

The Spurs are 15th in scoring with 112 points per game, 24th in rebounds with 41.8 per game, 20th in AST/TO ratio with 1.7, and 20th in blocks per game with 4.9

The Lakers are 20th in scoring with 110.2 points per game, 13th in rebounds with 44.6 per game, 23rd in AST/TO ratio with 1.6, and 16th in blocks per game with 5.1 per game.

Our prediction for Sunday, November 20th is…. Spurs 111 - Lakers 109

The Spurs are better than the Lakers… That sounds dumb…but they are, especially with LeBron still out with injury.   Bet on the Spurs.

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The Spurs are 2-1 ATS versus the Lakers in Los Angeles the last 3 seasons.
The Spurs are 35-26 ATS versus the Lakers in Los Angeles since 1996.

Spurs: SF Kenneth Bates Diop.  KBD needs to find his game… and their is no better place than against the G-League scrubs on the Lakers’ roster.

Lakers: SG Austin Reeves.  Austin was an undrafted free agent last season… he looks like it this season too.

Spurs: Greg “old man NBA” Poppovich

Lakers: Darvin “dream job is a nightmare” Ham