Christmas Day for Lakers fans will be an entertaining one, with the Dallas Mavericks facing off the LA Lakers at 8pm ET. And if the odds makers are the ones to trust, there is a Christmas gift coming our way. But will get to the line and spread on the Mavericks – Lakers game in a bit.
To recap the upcoming game, both the Mavs and the Lakers are coming into the Friday matchup with a shaky start to the season. The Mavericks lost their opener to the Timberwolves in overtime yesterday and will have to turn around and travel to Staples Center and face one of the contenders for the next NBA title. Luckily for the Mavs, only power forward Kristaps Porzingis is listed as out on the injury report. Meanwhile both LeBron and AD are probably for the Xmas day game against Dallas. Although, to be perfectly frank, not many people were happy with the Lakers’ team performance in their season opener, a game they lost and saw LeBron James rolling his left ankle, raising questions about his availability for the game against the Mavs Friday.
Despite the slight uncertainty surrounding the injuries of its top two stars, the odds makers are still making the LA Lakers a huge favorite to win the Christmas Day game, so let’s get to the much awaited betting odds on the match-up. Currently the line is favoring the Lakers at -275 to win the game outright, while the Mavs will pay on underdog odds +235. The point spread listed by the bookies is also on the large side, considering it’s only the second game of this quick turnaround season. The spread on the Lakers is at -6 points chalk LA, while the total expected by the odds makers is sitting at 227.5 points. This over-under on the Mavs Lakers game is expected to change slightly, with the odds on the “under” indicating that it will most likely come down by about a point. The first-half spread is also favoring the Lakers, who are -3 points ATS for the first half of the game, with total posted on that part of the game at 116 points.
And as a fun diversion, let’s end the Mavericks – Lakers game with some prop bets. The odds makers still have the Lakers as +400 favorite to be the team that scores the most points among all of the Christmas Day games, although Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo is the player with the best odds to score the most points at +400, while LeBron is trailing with the distant +800.
