(825) MILWAUKEE BUCKS at (826) LOS ANGELES LAKERS
FREE PICK: (825) MILWAUKEE BUCKS -5.5
Two straight wins for the Lakers, and I’ll give them credit for not simply tanking games in a season that’s pretty much a disaster for this proud franchise. But this is still a very weak team, and I don’t see the Lakers garnering their second 3-0 streak of the season.
The Lakers have managed to hold their own against other bad teams. But LA has only six wins all season against opponents that are currently in possession of a winning record. That doesn’t bode especially well for them this evening.
Milwaukee has been a pleasant surprise. When Jabari Parker went down for the season with a knee injury, the consensus opinion seemed to be that the Bucks would struggle and end up on the wrong side of .500 once again. That’s evidently not going to be the case as Milwaukee is still a very respectable 32-25 and in possession of the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Bucks have done a great job of handling teams at their own level or below. Milwaukee has lost just six times to teams with current losing records. That indicates they’re rock solid when it comes to taking care of business against the teams they’re supposed to defeat.
Current in-season trends certainly indicate the Bucks in this spot and the fact is this team is only five games behind the presently second seeded Raptors. Yet they’ve seemingly remained pretty much under the radar, so we’re not running headlong into situations where Milwaukee is overpriced.
I would say the number on this game is about where I figured it to be and on the math, that seems about right. But given the tendencies of Milwaukee to get good work accomplished against bad teams, couple with the Lakers general inability to step up in class, I think the road chalk has a decent chance to get it done here. I’ll go with the Bucks for the Friday free play.