Team records:<\/strong>
\nLos Angeles: 55-22 SU, 32-43-2 ATS
\nDenver: 51-27 SU, 33-39-6 ATS <\/p>\nOver the last few weeks the Lakers have been playing with all the focus of a bunch of college kids on spring break in Cancun. Big-time losses to Oklahoma City, Atlanta and San Antonio. In the last 2 games Kobe Bryant has shot 15 for 43 from the field. The injury to center Andrew Bynum has forced Lamar Odom into the starting lineup and devastated what had been a decent bench. And coach Phil Jackson basically admitted that he had run out of answers when he went off on the referees and got fined $35,000 for his rant. <\/p>\n
If any team should keep a low profile about officials\u2019 calls it should be the Lakers, who seem to get every edge imagineable.<\/p>\n
Anyway, 5 games are left in the regular season, including tonight\u2019s game at Denver in the back end of the TNT doubleheader, and the usually-fawning LA-area writers who do everything but wash the players\u2019 Bentleys are starting to talk about the unthinkable \u2013 an early playoff ouster. <\/p>\n
Four losses in six games is rough stuff, and if Showtime doesn\u2019t make a return engagement pretty soon, LA could be hurting. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_629\")
<\/p>\n
It all comes down to matchups in the playoffs, and the West is shaping up as the most competitive in a few decades. <\/p>\n
Every playoff team, including possible 8 seeds San Antonio and Portland, could finish with 50 regular-season victories. And the Spurs and Blazers would be choose-your-poison opponents for the Lakers. <\/p>\n
LA has never played well in Portland, and could extend the Lakers to 6 or 7 games. And San Antonio is waking up at just the right time and a series against the Lakers could go either way.<\/p>\n
Betting Trends<\/strong>:<\/p>\nLA Lakers are 15-5 SU in their last 20 games when playing Denver
\nDenver is 9-1 SU in its last 10 games at home
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 12 of the LA Lakers last 16 games when playing Denver
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 7 of the LA Lakers last 10 games
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 4 of Denver’s last 5 games at home
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 7 of Denver’s last 9 games when playing at home against LA Lakers
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 12 of Denver’s last 16 games when playing LA Lakers
\nThe total has gone UNDER in 7 of the LA Lakers last 9 games when playing on the road against Denver<\/p>\n
THURSDAY NIGHT BEST NBA PARLAY BET:<\/h3>\n
One more concern for the Lakers \u2013 they are only a half-game ahead of Orlando for the 2nd-best overall record and the home-court edge that would come with it if they were to meet in The Finals. <\/p>\n
Still, the big problem with these guys is indeed focus. \u201cIt doesn’t bode well for the playoffs or building momentum, but we can’t seem to put together a good game from one opponent to the next,” said Jackson. <\/p>\n
Denver is beaten up a bit (Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen are game-time decisions) and played a tough game last night in Oklahoma City. <\/p>\n
Suggested play here is LA getting the 2. If you like parlays, the under is worth a shot as it\u2019s to Denver\u2019s advantage to control clock.<\/p>\n
Get Your Free $10 Bet Today at Sportsbook.com<\/h4>\n
Visit the Bet Menu at half-time to place your bet. Everybody Gets a $10.00 Free Bet today.<\/p>\n
CLICK HERE TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT AT SPORTSBOOK.COM AND BET $50 ON THE HALF TIME LINE FOR THE THURSDAY NIGHT MATCHUPS!!!!!!<\/h3>\n
<\/strong>
\nLawrence Paul is a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog, and is a free-lance gambling and travel expert from Massachusetts.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our experts weigh in with this week\u2019s best Thursday night hoops NBA picks for gambling on all the action…tonight on the hardwood we get the L.A. Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4045,5595,27509,27510,27506,27507,19998,27508,20992,20991,9273,9921,20993,20994,21934],"class_list":["post-21044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba","tag-free-nba-picks","tag-free-nba-predictions","tag-l-a-denver-picks","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-denver-nuggets","tag-lakers-nuggets-odds","tag-lakers-nuggets-picks","tag-lakers-vs-nuggets","tag-lakers-vs-nuggets-predictions","tag-nba-parlay-betting","tag-nba-parlay-picks","tag-nba-selections","tag-online-nba-predictions","tag-thursday-night-nba","tag-thursday-night-nba-picks","tag-thursday-night-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21044"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108733,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21044\/revisions\/108733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}