Tues. 1/1 - Lakers vs 76ers - Predictions & Comments

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Lakers (15-15) vs. Sixers (14-17)
10:30 PM EST

LAKERS
Won last 1
10-6 at home
6-4 vs. East

PROBABLE STARTERS
Steve Nash 9.7 points, 7.7 assists, 2.8 rebounds
Darius Morris 5.0 points, 2.1 assists, 1.6 rebounds
Kobe Bryant 30.1 points, 4.9 assists, 5.3 rebounds
Pau Gasol 12.7 points, 4.0 assists, 8.7 rebounds
Dwight Howard 17.6 points, 2.0 assists, 11.8 rebounds

SIXERS
Lost 2 in a row
5-10 on the road
6-7 vs. West

PROBABLE STARTERS
Jrue Holiday 18.6 points, 8.9 assists, 4.1 rebounds
Jason Richardson 11.2 points, 1.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds
Evan Turner 14.3 points, 4.3 assists, 6.6 rebounds
Thaddeus Young 15.2 points, 1.6 assists, 7.2 rebounds
Lavoy Allen 6.4 points, 1.1 assists, 5.2 rebounds

PREDICTION
LA beat a short-handed Philadelphia team 111-98 just two weeks ago. That was early on in a stretch that has seen LA heat up. They have won six of their last seven games. Philadelphia has lost five of seven since then. The 76ers are on a long, rough road trip. They will face LA, Phoenix, OKC, and San Antonio before returning home. They could be far under .500 by then.

In their previous encounter the Lakers (without Nash) beat the 76ers (without Holiday) handily despite 30 points from Nick Young. The Holiday/Nash matchup could be fun to watch, but the Lakers should have too much for the Sixers to handle. Nash and Holiday have matched up five times, with Holiday's team claiming three wins. In those games, Nash has gotten the upper hand, averaging 17 points, 12 assists to Holiday's 13 points, 4 assists.

Lakers 104
Sixers 96

January 1st, Weez!

new year, start with a win please

We basically can't afford losing games at home anymore ...

Bynum will be town. Hope its a comfortable win

A win will be a perfect antidote for a turbulent year.

We goin' whoop dat ahahahaa!

idk about this game. guys are prob gunna be pretty lazy and slow after celebrating new years. metta will definitely be a zero im sure bc we all know he loves to party it up. i can see a very slow sluggish lazy start fighting a deficit.

should be a win but who knows bc of new years celebrations.

We can still go 82-0.... in 2013.

Jokes aside, I think we'll have our hands full with Holiday in the lineup, unless Morris gives us a New Year's miracle with his defense.

1 game over .500 here we come

Finwë wrote:1 game over .500 here we come

I concur

Have we ever been over .500 this season at least once?

laker911 wrote:Have we ever been over .500 this season at least once?

6-5 I believe

I expect a win here, let's try and get another winning streak going.

I'm thinking about going to this game... hmm...

Morris on Holiday i assume. so that leaves Nash or Kobe on Richardson & Turner...thats not good. sometimes morris starting is good for smaller lineups with a good PG but other times metta starting makes more sense

Hope we win this one. With this bad of a record right now, every loss feels like a 3 game losing streak.

Ariza3 wrote:Morris on Holiday i assume. so that leaves Nash or Kobe on Richardson & Turner...thats not good. sometimes morris starting is good for smaller lineups with a good PG but other times metta starting makes more sense

I think it's important to keep Holiday in check early on. He sets the tempo for their team.

JRich usually kills us in the 4th quarter, so we'll probably see Metta on him by then. Hopefully Kobe doesn't leave him too open early on (if he gets the assignment initially), or he'll keep the 76ers in the game even if they're playing poorly overall.

Turner, to me, doesn't seem like much of a game changer, so we can risk putting Kobe on him for most of the game.

start the game...morris on holiday, nash on turner, kobe on jrich?

Ariza3 wrote:start the game...morris on holiday, nash on turner, kobe on jrich?

Lol, well, you got me there.

Must win game ! Time for an above .500 record and never look back