Lakers will travel to Indiana to face Pacers tonight at 7:00 pm ET seeking revenge for their home defeat on the 28th of November. Lakers are currently on a 18-7 while Pacers are on a 11-12. Lakers have 5 wins and 5 defeats on the last 10 games they played while Indiana is on 4-6. Indiana’s home record is 6-5 while Los Angeles road record is on 8-5.
The five wins on the last six games certainly boosted the confidence of the Lakers as Kobe Bryant and Paul Gasol come to town aiming for their third consecutive win. On the other hand, Pacers have already lost two in a row and another defeat will push them lower on the Eastern Conference standings.
Hibbert stated on Pacers official site after the win over Los Angeles: “We know this is a big win for us, but we can play with anybody, In the future, we don’t want this to be a surprise”. Back on November 28th Pacers managed to block Gasol (who was playing injured) while Kobe Bryant make a party that night as he scored 441 points which were not enough however. Bynum has certainly thrived against the Pacers. His record is an average of 20.0 points in six meetings against Indiana at the past three seasons, his highest average against any team he has faced at least four times.
Pacers looked bad offensively in their last games and the defeat was inevitable as they scored an average of 78.0 points with a shooting 36.4 percent at Atlanta and Chicago. Leading scorer Danny Granger sat out Monday’s 92-73 defeat against the Bulls with a sprained left ankle. Granger is expected to return tonight but it’s Hibbert who needs to bounce back from under par performances.
Sports Books offer 4.5 points spread in favor to Indiana at -110 while the moneyline on the hosts win is offered at +165 (Lakers are on -200). Furthermore, given the fact that Pacers do not score a lot the Under 196.5 points seems a quite good choice at excellent price -110 (1.90).