Getting Steve Nash back didn’t make much difference as the Lakers will arrive in Cleveland on Wednesday fresh off a loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night. [ad-4468020]<\/p>\n
Date\/Time: 7 <\/strong>PM ET,\u00a0Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014 ATS Matchup Insight<\/a> | CappersPicks Insider Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Cavs meanwhile, have been dealing with their own injuries, and despite the return of center\u00a0Anderson Varejao\u00a0who returned Monday, lost to Dallas 124-107. It was the team’s fifth loss in a row.<\/p>\n The injury-riddled Lakers (16-32) not only got Nash back, but point guard\u00a0Steve Blake\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n But LA’s woes continued with a 109-99 loss to Timberwolves, which extended their current skid to seven and was their 19th defeat in 22 games. The longest losing streak since a seven-game slide in 2007.<\/p>\n Nash finished with seven points and nine assists after missing 34 games because of a back problem, while Blake was held scoreless, but chipped in six assists and five rebounds for the Lakers who were without Pau Gasol.<\/p>\n Gasol is expected to be sidelined for the final five games before the All-Star break, including Wednesday’s contest against Cleveland.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the slumping Cavaliers (16-32) have been dealing with injuries, though not nearly on the same level as Los Angeles. But as good as the Cavs played, it’s the defense that has done them in as of late, with opponents averaging 109.2 points and shooting 51.3 percent during their losing skid.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the Cavaliers have dominated the Lakers on their home floor in recent seasons, winning seven of the past eight meetings in Cleveland.<\/p>\n Deng scored 27 points in Cleveland’s 120-118 road win against the Lakers in the first meeting between the two on Jan. 14.<\/p>\n Matt’s Prediction:<\/b> With so many key players injured, LA’s reserves will need to continue playing well as they did against the Timberwolves, scoring 72 points coming from the bench, compared to \u00a027 points from its starters.<\/p>\n In fact, the Lakers’ bench players average 41.0 points, among the most in the NBA.<\/p>\n All the same, even though the Cave aren’t playing much better, better health, home court advantage and rested legs will help guide them to a win in this one.<\/p>\n Cavaliers 98, Lakers 90<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" L.A. vs Cleveland NBA Hoops Handicapping Getting Steve Nash back didn’t make much difference as the Lakers will arrive in Cleveland on Wednesday fresh off a loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":978,"featured_media":68084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2483,1794,5543,22695,22774,23027,42448,4751,23025],"class_list":["post-72254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-l-a","tag-l-a-lakers","tag-l-a-lakers-vs-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-l-a-vs-cleveland","tag-lakers","tag-lakers-vs-cavaliers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72254","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\/978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72268,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72254\/revisions\/72268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVenue:<\/strong> Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
\nBroadcast: <\/strong>FOX Local<\/strong>
\nSpread: <\/strong>-6 Cavaliers<\/strong>
\nOver\/Under: <\/strong>210
\n Odds From [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p>\nCheck out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Season Package Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\nVarejao had 10 points in his return earlier this week, and was one of seven Cavaliers players to reach double-figures against Dallas. Kyrie Irving scored 27 points,\u00a0Luol Deng\u00a0added 18 and\u00a0Tristan Thompson\u00a017.<\/p>\n