Los Angeles Lakers vs Cleveland Cavaliers Prediction: Bet on Cavaliers

For LeBron James, meetings with Cleveland are particularly important, and the Lakers have beaten the Cavaliers in their last five head-to-head encounters. Will the Lakers be able to extend their winning streak?

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers have won 2 of their last 3 regular-season games, but the team is still last in the Eastern Conference. LeBron James is off to a good start, shooting just over 40% from the field in his last three games and averaging 21 points-less than Lonnie Walker and Anthony Davis. Russell Westbrook had a decent showing during the same stretch, and Troy Brown Jr. also scored 10+ points. The Lakers dropped out of the NBA's defensive top 5 and are in the penultimate spot in terms of their offensive play.

Darvin Ham's team lost 116-130 at home to Utah in their last regular season game. The Lakers lost the battle on their own basket and allowed their opponent to score 25 points after offensive rebounds. The defense in the paint left much to be desired. Almost half of Los Angeles' points came from inside the paint. The Lakers again made over 40% of their three-pointers, while Russell Westbrook suddenly became their leading scorer with 3 three-pointers from beyond the arc. Their usual good play on the fast break could not help either, as poor defense undercut their best effort.

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers have won 7 straight games after their opening regular season loss, and are currently 2nd in the Eastern Conference, behind only Milwaukee. Darius Garland has not played much, while Donovan Mitchell meanwhile is 5th in scoring average (31.1 points per game). By the way, Mitchell is the only one making more than 40 percent of his three-pointers in the NBA's top 5, and he ranks ninth in 3-point percentage from beyond the arc.

In their recent game against Detroit, both Garland and Mitchell were absent from the floor but it did not prevent Cleveland from holding on for a 112-88 road win. Three Cavaliers players made ++ assists on the night, and all of a sudden Kevin Love was the top assister with 10 assists. Jarrett Allen had his best game of the season, making 11 of 16 shots from the field and scoring 23 points. Bench players accounted for almost half of Cleveland's points in that game. Сedi Osman, Kevin Love and Raul Neto had nice shots from beyond the arc as well as a forgotten Lamar Stevens. J.B. Bickerstaff had a near-perfect defense in the paint and allowed only 24 points from there. Evan Mobley threw 8 (!) blocked shots on the night, ranking 8th in total blocks in the regular season.

Key stats

The Los Angeles Lakers have lost 3 of their last 5 games on their home court. According to this trend, Cleveland's win including overtime for 1.61 at 1xbet looks interesting.

The Los Angeles Lakers have given up 110+ points in their last 5 games, so it might be worth trying Cleveland's Individual Total Over 112.5 points at odds of 1.83 as offered by Betway.

Expert Betting Tips

At the beginning of the season the main problems for the Lakers were considered to be poor three-point shooting and poor play of Russell Westbrook, but even when everything was the opposite – it flew from behind the arc, Russ caught the flow – Los Angeles suffered a defeat anyway. LeBron, of course, will be fired up, but not much depends on him. Cleveland has a good team and the Cavaliers have backups even without their biggest stars. Mitchell should also be back on the court and the Lakes' defense will be in trouble. Here are the betting options:

• H2 (-2.5) for 1.77;
• TU (222.5) for 1.90;
• ITU2 (109.5) for 1.95.

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