Once upon a time, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder would have been a Western Conference Finals dream. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Los Angeles (10-11) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (17-4)<\/strong> NBA ATS Stats<\/a> | NBA Betting Insight!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Kobe Bryant vs. Kevin Durant would have been the headline, but this season, we\u2019re looking at the future of the NBA versus the past\u2014Bryant, who is a player trying to prove he is worthy of All-Star consideration, is coming back from a brutal injury late last season, while Durant is thriving as the No. 1 scorer in the entire Association.<\/p>\n Just as the Los Angeles Lakers began to see a glimmer of hope with the return of Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake goes out with an arm injury for the next six weeks. Typically Blake wouldn\u2019t be that detrimental of a loss, but consider two things: <\/p>\n The point guard has been fantastic on the year, and more importantly, he\u2019s the only remaining healthy point guard on the roster\u2014or at least he was.<\/p>\n At this point in the year, with Blake now lost to injury, the Lakers are without a single healthy point guard on the roster. Jordan Farmar and Steve Nash were lost earlier in the year, and the loss of Blake should force L.A.\u2019s hand when it comes to signing an undesirable free agent early in the year.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the team, a free agent won\u2019t be signed\u2014and a trade won\u2019t be made\u2014before Friday night\u2019s game against OKC.<\/p>\n Without a point guard, Los Angeles will look for Kobe Bryant to exceed expectations early in the year. He\u2019s only a few games removed from returning from a devastating season-ending injury, and he\u2019s finding a balance between scoring and contributing. The Oklahoma City Thunder haven\u2019t been making a lot of noise this season, but that just means they\u2019re quietly attacking the entire Western Conference. At this point in the year, the team from the Northwest Division is 17-4, having taken advantage of an early comeback from Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n On the season, the squad is averaging the 14th<\/sup>-most points in the entire NBA, but the issue is one defense.<\/p>\n Through the first quarter of the year, Oklahoma City is the second-worst team in the league when it comes to points allowed. They\u2019re giving up 103.5 points per contest, which is 29th<\/sup> in the league.<\/p>\n The key against the Lakers, as it will be for every NBA team the rest of the way, will be stopping Kobe Bryant. So far, the 15-year All-Star has proven that he can score when he needs to, but not consistently throughout a 48-minute battle. With Blake gone, the Lakers will be scrambling for an impromptu lineup come Friday, which means OKC will have the edge at home.<\/p>\n Prediction: Oklahoma City 110 \u2013 Los Angeles 96<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Los Angeles vs Oklahoma City NBA Betting Odds Once upon a time, the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder would have been a Western Conference Finals dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":68047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[22695,60664,60665,4751,28124,11710,3121,28120,922,10568,8471,4398],"class_list":["post-70386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-okc-thunder","tag-l-a-vs-okc","tag-lakers","tag-lakers-vs-thunder","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-los-angeles-lakers-vs-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-okc","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70386","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\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70386"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70393,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70386\/revisions\/70393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFriday, Dec. 13 8:00 PM ET @ Chesapeake Energy Arena<\/strong>
\nSpread: Oklahoma City 12.5<\/strong>
\nO\/U: 208<\/strong>
\n [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nLos Angeles<\/h3>\n
The Best NBA Predictions on the PLANET!!! CLICK TO CHECK OUT OUR EXPERTS NBA PLAYS TODAY!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nOn the season, the Lakers have found a solid level of production on offense. They\u2019re fourth in scoring on the year, at 105.1 points per game, but that was before Blake went out, and Bryant\u2019s contributions have lacked the flare of the pas at this point in the process.<\/p>\nOklahoma City Thunder<\/h3>\n