NBA on TNT DraftKings Preview: LeBron James returns home to Cleveland

Dec 6, 2022 - 5:03 PM

It’s Tuesday night so you know what that means. It’s time to preview TNT’s slate by looking at the DraftKings odds.

This week I’m going to focus on the Lakers vs. Cavaliers, given that the Brooklyn Nets are sitting 2.5 games behind the Cavs in the Eastern Conference standings.

The narrative, as always, in a game like this is “LeBron James heads home to Cleveland” and what kind of game will he put together for the “home crowd”?

LeBron is averaging 29.4 points, 7.3 assists and 7.1 rebounds in 19 games against the Cavaliers. In his last game IN Cleveland (last March) he put up 38 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in a win over the Cavs.

Let’s dig in, shall we?

DRAFTKINGS ODDS

Los Angels Lakers +5 (+170 ML), CLE ML -200; O/U 225.5

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the hottest teams in the NBA right now, on a 3-game win streak and winners of 8 of their last 10 games.

Meanwhile, the Cavs are playing really well, also, and on paper the better team. It may, however, feel like a trap when you look at the Lakers getting 5 points in this one; BUT, but, the Cavs this season are 10-1 at home.

The other “but” here is that no one is playing better than Anthony Davis at the moment. He’s straight up balling, as the kids say. Helping the Lakers to rank as the top offensive team over the last 5 games with a whopping 125.8 ORTG.

Meanwhile, the Cavs are 29th in offense over that span, but - here we go with the “but”s again - they are also first in team defense with an impressive 99.6 DRTG (the Nets are 2nd at 106.2 during that span).

So it’s a matter of top offense meets top defense - I like it!

The Lakers are 5-1 against the spread in their last 5 and I really like them getting the points here, in spite of the fact that the Cavs are playing so well defensively. I am going to take the “red hot-ish” Lakers here getting 5 points, even on the road.

And I actually think the O/U is low at 225.5 right now. I would grab the OVER here especially because the Lakers defense isn’t that good and the Cavaliers offense is better than it’s shown over the last 5.

I expect to see a high scoring game here and think the Lakers are primed to, at the very least, keep this one close and within the spread.

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