Two familiar Western Conference foes meet up on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, as the Los Angeles Lakers host the Golden State Warriors. Both teams have been hit by the injury bug and will be without a few key players, but that shouldn’t detract from the overall experience of this game.
ABC will have the tip at 8:30 pm ET, and I have come up with a Same Game Parlay priced at +355 odds that is based on a pair of player prop bets to go along with a money line prediction. We hae you covered with NBA Picks for a massive 10-game slate on Saturday, so be sure to check those out. But for now, here is my SGP.
Los Angeles Lakers ML (-144)
Austin Reaves to record 6+ assists (+130)
LeBron James to score 20+ points (-265)
Same Game Parlay odds: +355
Los Angeles Lakers ML (-144)
This is not your typical Warriors vs Lakers matchup in terms of star power; both Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic are sidelined. Doncic is obviously the better player of the 2 at this point in their careers, but Curry is more valuable to his team. After all, Doncic has LeBron James and Austin Reaves to pick up the slack; Curry doesn’t even have Jimmy Butler III — who is out for the year with a torn ACL.
Reaves is back from missing more than a month with a calf injury, and he is heating up. He scored 35 points in just 25 minutes of action during Thursday’s win over Philly. His minutes climbed from 21 a game earlier, so don’t be surprised if Reaves approaches the 30 mark on Saturday. LeBron has scored at least 20 points in 14 of his last 18 contests. That duo alone should be enough to take care of a Golden State squad that was active at the trade deadline, shipping Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis will not play today — so the Warriors are even further depleted.
Austin Reaves to record 6+ assists (+130)
The comeback of Austin Reaves couldn’t have happened at a better time for the Lakers, who just lost Luka Doncic to a left leg injury in the win over Philadelphia. The ball will spend a lot more time in Reaves’ hands moving forward, and that should allow him to regain some of his pre-injury form a lot faster than he normally would. He had 9 dimes in the first meeting of the season between the 2 teams to go along with his 26 points on opening night. The last 10 meetings have seen him average 5.8 assists per game, while clearing this line 6 times. With no Butler to worry about on offense and without having to chase Stephen Curry around on defense, Reaves can solely focus on carrying the Lakers’ offense on his back. I just hope he doesn’t have a shoot-first mentality on every single possession in this game.
LeBron James to score 20+ points (-265)
LeBron James is certainly one of the players who will be the main beneficiary of all those Reaves assists. At 21.8 points per game, he is still having a productive season for the Lakers — even at the age of 41. LeBron’s field-goal percentage has remained consistent at over 50%, with a few hiccups from downtown here and there, but that’s understandable for a player with so much mileage on his body. Scoring 20 points shouldn’t be too big of an ask for a player like LeBron; he has done it 15 times over his last 20 games. We all know about the rivalry between him and the Warriors over the years — he always gets up against them, regardless if Steph is there or not. Over the past 22 meetings, he has cleared this line 19 times against them — which is a success rate of 86%. The odds aren’t the biggest, but with that type of ROI, I quite like our chances.
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