Expert NBA Free Pick: San Antonio Spurs vs. Los Angeles Lakers

The long, nearly month long road trip didn’t get off on the right foot for the Spurs, as they were defeated handily by the Portland Trail Blazers 99-86. It was the second straight road loss for a team that was once 13-5-1 ATS off of its home court this season. However, this road trip generally does some strange things to the Spurs, and though they usually end up with more wins than losses, it is almost always a fight to ensure that that happens and there are always some awkward looking results. Popovich hopes that the first leg of this road, the 13 point loss in Portland, was merely an anomaly and not a sign of things to come. Just a few slips could let a lot of teams, including these Lakers, back in the race for home court advantage in the Western Conference, something that really should have been wrapped up when the Spurs were the first to reach 40 wins this season. Believe it or not, the struggle for San Antonio in this one is going to be keeping up with all of the bigs for LA, as the difference is going to be whether the Spurs’ superior guards outplay the Lakers’ superior men in the paint both offensively and defensively.

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The Lakers still seem like a team in identity crisis, as they are really flirting with the idea of trading one of their more talented players, Ron Artest. Head Coach Phil Jackson knows that this one is going to be tough unless Artest can really lock down Manu Ginobili on the other side of the court, as the depth just isn’t there in the backcourt to survive great games by both Ginobili and Tony Parker. Big games were all around for the Lakers in an overtime win over the Houston Rockets earlier this week in spite of the fact that Andrew Bynum wasn’t in the lineup. Lamar Odom, cast into a starting role for a change, played 49 minutes and had 20 points and 20 boards. Pau Gasol had 26 points and 16 boards to keep up his double-double average for the season. Kobe Bryant was the man we always expect him to be, scoring 32 points, dishing out 11 assists, and picking up six boards. Again though, there was a huge problem on the bench. Steve Blake and Shannon Brown were the only two men that played more than eight minutes, and they were the only ones to score a point. They only combined for 16 points.

Still, there’s something about the Spurs right now that we just don’t trust on this road trip. LA tends to wake up for the big time teams, and it doesn’t get much more big time than this. Back the purple and gold at Staples Center on the NBA odds on Thursday night.