Lakers at Pacers NBA Picks: The Los Angeles Lakers will continue their season long eight game road trip when they play the struggling Indianapolis Pacers tonight with a 7:10 pm Eastern tip-off. The Lakers are playing on back to back nights after defeating the Washington Wizards on Tuesday.
Los Angeles (34-11), which has lost five of its last six in Indianapolis, improved to 2-2 on its eight-game, 12-day trip with a 115-103 victory over Washington. The Lakers had dropped six of eight on the road since winning five straight away games from Dec. 15-26.
While Bryant is trying to help Los Angeles break away from Denver and Dallas in the West race, Indiana (16-29) is looking to build some momentum with six of its next eight games at home.
With the Lakers starting two 7-footers on the front line in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, not to mention 260-pound Ron Artest at small forward, O'Brien might not be able to stick with his preferred small lineup at the start of the game but it will remain the team's prevalent combination.
O'Brien, whose team hosts Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland on Friday, said he would like to continue with a smaller lineup, with Danny Granger starting at power forward, but Indiana might be at a significant disadvantage against the defending champions if it implements that strategy.
NBA Picks: The last time the Lakers went back-to-back, and this is their second time in a week of doing, they lost at Toronto last week. LA might be experiencing some heavy legs making this more of an even match-up. We like Indiana taking the points (+6).
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