NBA Picks New York Knicks (11-12) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (20-3): Tonight, the Los Angeles Lakers welcome Mike D’ANtoni and the New York Knicks to the STAPLES Center, before hitting the road for a 4-game in 5-nights east coast trip. The Lakers will look to extend their current 3-game win streak before heading to: (12-12) Miami, (19-6) Orlando, and (9-15) Memphis, before finishing off in (13-7) New Orleans on Tuesday, Dec. 23rd.
Odds-makers at SBGglobal.com have posted the best Sports Odds for tonight’s NBA Picks contest, favoring the “purple and gold”, Los Angeles Lakers [-13] by a considerable margin over the New York Knickerbockers [+13]. 
It’s worth pointing out that the Lakers have to be one of the most disappointing, 20-3 teams ever. Not only do they allow inferior teams to hang around in games, but in addition can’t hold on to big leads (in the late stages of games), if their life depended on it.
This has to be a huge concern for coach Phil Jackson, who has been preaching defense since last year’s loss to Boston in the Finals. Yet time and time again the Lakers continue to allow teams to Waltz into the paint and convert on uncontested lay-ups. Furthermore, at this point of the season it is very clear to see who the best team in the NBA Picks is. And yes, by a landslide, it is the same team that lifted the Larry O’Brian trophy last season, the (23-2) Boston Celtics. The OVER/UNDER for this, NBA Picks: New York Knicks vs. Los Angeles Lakers has been tallied at a combined 224 points.
When asked if his team continues to play down to the level of its competition, Jackson said, “It could be… We're trying to find a combination out there that can give us better spacing. Right now, it doesn't seem like our quickness or our execution speed that I like is there. Sometimes the ball stays on one side of the court too long or we're just not executing.”
“We can't hold a lead… That's awful,” said Lamar Odom. "We want to play the same way all the time. That's what great teams do. It's only December, but we can play a lot better."
Reigning league MVP Kobe Bryant (24.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.3 apg) is in the midst of a nasty funk, shooting just 39% in his last 6 games, as one can’t help but wonder if he’s feeling OK. Perhaps that famous pinky is giving him problems now, or maybe it's something else? According to the Zen Master, who classified Kobe’s recent play as ‘bothersome’, everything's fine with his captain.
“I can usually tell by the walk that he has in a game at some point after he's played 30 or 35 minutes what condition he is (in). I think he's being honest about this. He looks good. He's totally in touch… Kobe's the kind of guy that's a streak player. And Pau's a guy that gets us going," Jackson said. "We like to attack inside. Our size is important. A lot of time Kobe sits back and doesn't get enough opportunities and then to get going, he needs to have some shots to do so. And he hasn't been clicking on those right away. It takes him a while to get himself going offensively. So we'd like, and he'd like, to get himself going earlier. I'm going to try and get that accomplished as we go along here.”
