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2011-2012 NBA Record:
105 – 118 @ 44% for -24.8 Units
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#1: Atlanta Hawks -10
The Celtics pretty much threw in the towel on trying to secure home-court advantage in the first round. Rondo, Allen, KG, and Pierce are all out for this game. Atlanta winning this game pretty much guarantees them home-court in their first round match up with Boston. Hard to see Boston’s secondary players doing much here. Bass and Bradley are decent but besides them, there’s nothing left. I don’t see how the Hawks don’t win this one by double-digits.
#2: UNDER 204 LAL/SAS
In the 7 games that Kobe missed, there were two noticeable changes that took place within this Lakers team. First, they started playing ‘team ball’ offensively averaging 100 PPG and greatly increasing their assists/FGM ratio. Second of all, their D became very lax as they allowed 101 PPG with their defensive efficiency being 107.5 (season average at 101, so a huge difference). In the 56 games with Kobe, Lakers averaged 97 PPG offensively and allowed 94.25 PPG defensively for a 191 “total” point average. Without Kobe that number was at 201 in the 7 games he missed. So what can we expect tonight, besides ‘rust’? I think Kobe will try to play ‘hero ball’ once again when he comes back. This is a big game so expect him to jack up a number of inefficient long-range shots as he’s taking his time adjusting back to the team. More importantly, I expect Lakers’ D to improve. Kobe has the best net-defensive rating of all the starters at -3.43 so his presence on the court is very important to Lakers’ defense. Expect the team’s defensive intensity to improve tonight. Spurs won’t shoot 60% again in this one and I don’t see LA pushing the pace much. I’d expect a playoff-type atmosphere as it’s an important game for both squads. Under is the play.
Good luck