Three into one. That\u2019s what it has come down to in the Western Conference\u2019s battle for the last playoff spot. <\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers (37-35) at Milwaukee Bucks (34-36)<\/strong> Matchup<\/a> | Preview<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n Check Out Ray’s NBA Plays Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Portland\u2019s pathetic effort last night at home against the Nets amounted to an waving of the white flag game for the Trail Blazers, and now it\u2019s pretty clear when the dust settles on the regular season late on April 17, the 8th seed will belong to the Lakers, Jazz or Mavericks.<\/p>\n Utah (36-36) has the most home games, Dallas (35-36) has momentum but also the most difficult schedule, and the Lakers (37-35) have a slight lead but also will be without Metta World Peace (out 6 weeks, left knee surgery).<\/p>\n The Lakers know there is a sense of urgency if they are to avoid the humiliation of sitting out the playoffs, and they also know that 5-5 down the home stretch might not be enough.<\/p>\n Last night\u2019s hang-on-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth 120-117 victory in Minnesota forced Mike D\u2019Antoni to play all his starters at least 34 minutes, which could be a problem tonight when they take on the Bucks in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a weird season for the Lakers, and considering their troubles it\u2019s not surprising that they have yet to go 2-0 in any of the back-to-back sets they\u2019ve played. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n Ordinarily the extended minutes would be a huge problem, but the Bucks (who also played last night, losing by 8 in Philadelphia) have some issues of their own to deal with.<\/p>\n Brandon Jennings, who has the ball in his hands on 90-95 percent of Bucks possessions, reportedly got into it on the bench with coach Jim Boylan and played just 17 minutes against the Sixers. Jennings went scoreless (0 for 3 from the floor) for the first time in his career, and there\u2019s no word on how much (or even if) he\u2019ll play tonight against the Lakers.<\/p>\n The Bucks, who are pretty much locked into the 8th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and will surprise everyone if they can win even one game against the Heat in the first round, will need a superhuman effort from Monta Ellis to make things difficult for the Lakers.<\/p>\n And that still might not be enough, if LA\u2019s Dwight Howard can come even close to replicating last night\u2019s line \u2013 25 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 blocks.<\/p>\n Howard\u2019s lackadaisical play early in the season helped put the Lakers in this position, but with Superman finally playing with some intensity as he prepares for free agency and Pau Gasol back and rounding into shape, the front line looks imposing.<\/p>\n The Lakers need this one more, and they should get it fairly comfortably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lakers vs Bucks NBA Handicapping Three into one. That\u2019s what it has come down to in the Western Conference\u2019s battle for the last playoff spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":28053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4045,38981,58676,58674,58675,38984,8667,23074,1595],"class_list":["post-61200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-free-nba-picks","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-milwaukee-bucks","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-milwaukee-bucks-odds","tag-lakers-bucks-free-prediction","tag-lakers-bucks-picks","tag-lakers-vs-bucks","tag-nba-basketball-lines","tag-nba-betting-picks","tag-nba-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61200","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=61200"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61265,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61200\/revisions\/61265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Thursday, March 28<\/strong>
\n BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee<\/strong>
\n 8 p.m. EST<\/strong>
\n Spread \u2013 Lakers -1.5 at BETDSI<\/a><\/strong>
\n Total \u2013 209.5<\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert NBA Picks for 2013 HOOPS GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
FREE NBA PICK<\/h3>\n