NBA Picks: Lakers vs Spurs NBA Odds – March 24, 2010: Before the start of the season, the (52-18) Los Angeles Lakers [+2] and the (42-27) San Antonio Spurs [-2] were expected to finish as No.1 and No.2 in the 2010 Western Conference Playoff standings. With less than a month remaining on the regular season calendar, only one of these teams has been able to keep their end of the bargain. Tonight, Kobe Bryant and the defending champions embark on their toughest road-trip of the season, as they begin at the AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX, to take on Tim Duncan and the Spurs.
The opening tipoff for this Western Conference showdown is scheduled to take plate at 9:40 PM ET (6:40 PM PT) and it will be the second game of an NBA doubleheader on ESPN. According to NBA Odds makers at SPORTSBOOK.com, the Lakers and Spurs have been projected to combine and score a total of 196 points in tonight’s OVER/UNDER.
For the visiting Lakers, they come in with the best record in the Western Conference and winners of six in a row. With San Antonio currently sitting in 6th place in the playoff standings, and with no Tony Parker available, this could easily be a preview of the conference’s first round.
“At the end of the day it's just about winning games,” point-guard Derek Fisher said. “It's that simple. We figured out a way to do it and win a championship (last season), and it gets harder. We just need to stay focused on winning, no matter how it looks. Just win.”
But with Andrew Bynum out for at least two weeks with a knee injury, the Lakers road to repeat just got tougher. The Zen Master is going to have to do some shuffling in order to get his guys playing at a high level without the big man in the middle, at least for now.
“It's getting to the end of the season and they're looking forward to getting into the postseason, but the job's not done yet,” Phil Jackson said. “I don't think we've given up hope of having a record befitting of what we thought or anticipated before the season started. To do that, we have to win on this road trip.”
For San Antonio, it comes into tonight’s contest with the champs, two games behind Phoenix for the fifth spot in the West, with Oklahoma City stepping on its heels. Needless to say that, the Spurs are going to need to win every game in order to avoid dropping any lower in the playoff standings. “Every game right now is important and big,” said Parker’s replacement, George Hill.
