The New Orleans Hornets host the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, Friday April 22nd, for Game 3 of their deadlocked best-of-seven series at New Orleans Arena. The Lakers have won four of five against the Hornets. NBA oddsmakers have the Lakers as -5.5 point road favourites over the Hornets with the over/under set at 184 points. Be sure to check the Lakers vs Hornets NBA Point Spreads and get your predictions in early.
Los Angeles (1-1) got the 87-78 home win they wanted last game before heading to the Big Easy. But, things are far from perfect for the Lakers, especially Pau Gasol. Pau Gasol was somehow poorer in Game 2 (eight points, five rebounds) than in Game 1 (eight points, six rebounds) and has made only four of 19 shots (21%) in the best-of-seven series. It took a little while to find the last back-to-back games in which Gasol had single-digit scoring, but they were in March 2005, an eight-point effort against Chicago and nine points against New Orleans (of course). He looked awkward Wednesday in Game 2 against the Hornets, hoisting up off-balance shots and getting bodied out of the post by Carl Landry. "He'll be fine," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said Thursday, chuckling. "He had some traffic issues [down low]." It makes no sense that Gasol is struggling so much against the smaller Hornets. He averaged 22.3 points and 12.8 rebounds while shooting 70.5% against them in the regular season, the Lakers sweeping all four games. Hornets forward David West played in three of them, compounding the confusion for Gasol's issues this series. West is out with a knee injury, and that means Gasol's stats should head north, not south. Kobe Bryant also had an unusual Game 2, acting primarily as a distributor and scoring 11 points on three-for-10 shooting, barely keeping alive a double-digit playoff scoring streak dating to 2000. "He told me [Thursday], don't worry, he's going to take more than 10 shots the next game," Jackson said wryly. Jackson liked Bryant's defense on Chris Paul, acknowledging it drained Bryant's energy but "made us feisty." The Lakers held the Hornets to 39.1% shooting, and Paul had a manageable 20 points and nine assists. Maybe putting Bryant on Paul was the strategic move of the series.
New Orleans (1-1) showed they were not about to let the Lakers wipe the floor with them. New Orleans remained competitive until the final minutes of Game 2 and lost by nine despite missing 12 free throws, turning the ball over 16 times and having starting center Emeka Okafor in early foul trouble. If anything, that result left the Hornets' surprising nine-point triumph in Game 1 look like less of a fluke and made it clear that the Lakers had lost any intimidation factor they may have earned with their four-game sweep of the teams' regular season meetings. "We feel as though we kind of beat ourselves," Hornets guard Jarrett Jack said of Game 2. "Take no credit away from them, but we definitely had some mistakes." Paul went from being dominant (33 points, 14 assists in Game 1) to exceptional (20 points, nine assists in Game 2) and the Hornets offensive flow as a whole seemed more disrupted as their shooting percentage plummeted from 52 percent to 39 percent. "I wish we could have gotten 2-0, but I feel good because we competed," Paul said. "But in order to win this series, it's going to take more. It's going to take more from me, it's going to take more from everybody."
Recent Trends to Consider:
Lakers are 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings in New Orleans.
Over is 6-2 in the last 8 meetings.
Over is 9-4 in the last 13 meetings in New Orleans.
Underdog is 16-5 ATS in the last 21 meetings.
Road team is 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings.
Hornets are 6-1-1 ATS in their last 8 vs. NBA Pacific.
Hornets are 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog of 5.0-10.5.
Lakers vs Hornets
When: Friday, April 22, 9:30 PM ET
Pick: Lakers -5.5
Point-Spreads.com recommends you check out NBA Point Spreads before Lakers vs Hornets game.
The Bottom Line: Hornets will be dominant at home. Be sure to check Lakers vs Hornets Basketball Point Spreads and get your predictions in early.
