The Los Angeles Lakers got over their hiccup a couple of weeks ago and have run off five wins in a row, pushing their lead in the Western Conference to 4 ½ games over Denver and Houston. The Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder have both won nine of ten and are inching their way up the West standings. The coldest team in the conference right now is the Sacramento Kings, losers of nine out of ten. In the Eastern Conference, both Milwaukee and Boston have won eight of ten, and the Bucks lead the Celtics by five games atop the standings. The Philadelphia 76ers have lost four games in a row, as they have struggled on the road all season long and are dealing with some injuries to Joel Embiid. The coldest teams in the East are Atlanta and Detroit, both of which have lost eight of ten. Don’t miss this week’s top NBA betting picks from the league.
Top NBA Betting Picks of the Week – January 6th Edition
The Celtics are surging towards the top in Week 12’s NBA Power Rankings 📈 Full list here: https://t.co/lOeMuGSVMm pic.twitter.com/RrgDpgmYel
— ESPN (@espn) January 6, 2020
Monday, January 6th
Oklahoma City at Philadelphia (7:00 pm ET, NBA TV)
The Oklahoma City Thunder roll into Philadelphia on a five-game winning streak, with four of those wins coming on the road. Some of those wins have been against top teams, as the Thunder have taken down Charlotte, Toronto, Dallas, San Antonio and Cleveland — with three of those five teams in playoff positions. Their win over Cleveland on Saturday came by 15 points, behind 22 points from Dennis Schroder and 20 from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Danilo Gallinari put up 19 points, nailing five shots from downtown, and Steven Adams led all rebounders with 16. Since dropping their first six games on the road, the Thunder have won 8 of 11 since then. Can they keep up their road mojo?
Philadelphia went 0-4 on their recent road trip, falling to Orlando, Miami, Indiana and Houston, with that setback against the Rockets coming on Friday night. In that game, Philadelphia’s defensive woes continued as James Harden put up 44 points, 11 boards and 11 assists for the Rockets. The 76ers did not get much defense out of Joel Embiid in the middle, as Houston center Clint Capela had 30 points and 14 rebounds. Ben Simmons led the 76ers with 29 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists — and a career-best four blocks. Tobias Harris chipped in 24 points, and Embiid had 20 points and a dozen boards. The 76ers need to play with more defensive energy with a hot Oklahoma City team coming to town.
NBA Betting Prediction: Philadelphia 114, Oklahoma City 107
Tuesday, January 7th
New York at L.A. Lakers (10:30 pm ET, NBA TV)
The New York Knicks had a nice three-game winning streak going, with road wins over Brooklyn and Washington and an impressive home win over Portland, but then they dropped a pair to Phoenix and the L.A. Clippers to start their West Coast road swing. That loss to the Clippers came in 135-132 fashion on Sunday afternoon and featured a lack of defense on both sides. The Clippers had over 30 points each from Montrezl Harrell, Lou Williams and Paul George — the first time the team had ever gotten 30+ points from three different players in a game. Marcus Morris led the Knicks with a career-best 38 points, and R.J. Barrett chipped in 24. Julius Randle scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds. The Knicks led by 16 after one quarter but then gave up 47 points in the second to trail by seven at the half. They will need better defense when they play the other L.A. team on Tuesday.
The Lakers have won five in a row, but only one by double figures. They beat Detroit, 106-99, on Sunday night, blocking 20 shots as a team. No team had blocked that many shots in a game since 2001, as Dwight Howard, LeBron James, JaVale McGee and Anthony Davis all got into the action. James had 21 points, 14 boards and 11 assists. Davis had 24 points, 11 boards and eight blocks. JaVale McGee had six blocks, and Howard had five, to go along with 11 points and nine boards. The fact that the team still let a 13-24 Detroit team hang around late suggests some issues in execution, but they did pull away for the win.
NBA Betting Prediction: Los Angeles 110, New York 101
