Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
The Los Angeles Lakers are 11-4 straight up and 10-5 against the spread in their last 15 games against the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers kick off their postseason in Game 1 against the Suns on the road on Sunday afternoon.
Los Angeles is a three-point road underdog on the NBA odds in Phoenix at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com (how the point spread works). The Suns went 27-9 SU and 23-13 ATS at home during the regular season.
Lakers vs. Suns | OddsShark Matchup Report
LeBron James recorded a triple-double and scored the game-winning shot in Los Angeles’ 103-100 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, finishing the game with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Anthony Davis led the team in minutes played (42), rebounds (12) and points (25) in the victory. The Lakers finished the regular season on a six-game winning streak but went just 1-4 ATS in their five games as a betting favorite over that stretch.
The Lakers went 5-16 SU and 8-13 ATS as a betting underdog during the regular season per the OddsShark NBA Database. Los Angeles did beat Phoenix as a 6.5-point underdog in its last meeting with the Suns on May 9.
Phoenix rested four of its top five scorers in its regular season finale against the San Antonio Spurs and still came away with a 123-121 win as eight of the nine players that saw action scored at least 10 points. The Suns earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference standings with a 51-21 SU and 42-28-2 ATS campaign in 2020-21 and got extremely unlucky to draw the defending champions in the first round. This is Phoenix’s first trip to the postseason since 2009-10.
Sunday afternoon’s total is set at 213 points at sports betting sites. The OVER is 9-1 over Phoenix’s last 10 games.
Los Angeles would have loved some time to get Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Andre Drummond and Dennis Schroder on the same page against some weaker competition, but instead this group will be thrown right into the deep end against this talented Suns group. Both teams would like to set the tone for this series with a win in Game 1 as this doesn’t figure to be an easy first-round matchup for either of them.
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