10 hours Ago By Sloan Piva
LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the Lakers will visit three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets on Saturday, the first real marquee matchup for Los Angeles since acquiring Doncic for Anthony Davis in the historic trade-deadline deal earlier this month. The Sporting News has the latest NBA odds for this Western Conference tilt, along with some best bets and top props from the BetMGM online sportsbook . Let's get to the odds for this Saturday evening tilt, then unveil our betting recommendations and final score prediction for Lakers vs.
Nuggets. Place live, in-game bets Bet now with the King of sportsbooks Register Lakers vs. Nuggets odds, pick against spread All odds and props are from BetMGM , an authorized gaming operator of the NBA.
ATS: Nuggets -4.5 (-118) | Lakers +4.5 (-102) Moneyline: Nuggets -200 | Lakers +175 Over/under: O 230.
5 (-115) | U 230.5 (-105) Los Angeles enters Ball Arena as a 4.5-point underdog, not surprising considering it has struggled a bit with inferior teams since Doncic became a Laker.
The Nuggets, meanwhile, have been rolling — they have won nine games in a row, the longest winning streak in Denver's Michael Malone era. Denver has also won a whopping 14 games in a row against LA dating back to Jan. 2023.
Lakers vs. Nuggets best bets and final score prediction The Nuggets have been the best team in basketball since January 31. They have won nine games in a row, the past seven of which have been by an average margin of 18.
6 points. Joker and company are rolling , in large part because Aaron Gordon is healthy again and Jamal Murray looks like prime Bubble Murray. And, of course, they have the reigning and three-time MVP.
The Lakers have a multiple-time MVP, too — LeBron has four such trophies — and he has looked like a 25-year-old in a 40-year-old's body since LA acquired Doncic. Doncic, however, has looked like an out-of-shape middle-aged man trying to run a 5K. J.
J. Redick and the Lakers keep trying to get Doncic going, but he's clearly rusty and out of game shape. He also doesn't have a great rapport with James and the rest of the team yet, as evidenced by the insane amount of turnovers LA has committed over the past few games.
As a Laker, Doncic has shot 35.6 percent from the floor and an abysmal 20.8 percent from three-point land.
He has committed 12 turnovers and 13 fouls in 80 minutes of play with Los Angeles. Two of those three games were losses, a 131-119 spank-down in Utah and a 100-97 stunner vs. Charlotte.
Michael Malone's Nuggets are 20-8 at home, they execute well and take care of the basketball, and take good shots. They might not have anyone who can stop LeBron, but they put such a high-quality product on the court that it's difficult to see them losing steam against the bumbling current iteration of players around Bron and Austin Reaves right now. Until Doncic gets right, this Lakers team should be either placed in your betting no-fly zone or your hammer-against list.
In this case, we're smashing the red-hot Nuggets to beat LA for the 15th time in a row, and we would probably take the home team up to -5.5. FINAL SCORE PREDICTION: Nuggets 120, Lakers 110 — Los Angeles wins and covers (-4.
5), while the score goes just UNDER the projected total of 230.5. Lakers vs.
Nuggets top player prop bet Nikola Jokic, C, Nuggets: Triple-double (+110) Jokic very nearly bagged his 26th triple-dub on Thursday night against the Hornets, coming one assist shy. He's averaging a triple-double, so obviously there have been a bunch of times this season in which he has almost logged a triple-dub. The three-time MVP simply isn't worried about stacking up statistical milestones at this point — he just cares about winning.
Against strong opponents like LeBron and the Lakers, Jokic is almost always in top form. And, if LA blitzes him to help Jaxson Hayes and other weaker bigs in containing Joker, the high-IQ big man will more than likely start racking up assists. The points and rebounds? Well, those are basically locks — he has 42 double-doubles in 50 games this season.
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