Betting Results:
Head to Head: Lakers, odds 3.016 - big odds win
Line: Lakers (+6.5), odds 1.891
Total Points: Under (219), odds 1.891

Pre-game Prediction
Celtics, 65.1%
Lakers, 34.9%

We missed 3/4 tips on this one as the Celtics let us down hugely with a distinctly meh performance, looking very much like a team who had played their second game, three time zones away from home in 24 hours. Weak.

Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves propel Lakers to 117-96 victory over Celtics

By JOE REEDY AP Basketball Writer The Associated Press LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anthony Davis scored 24 points, Austin Reaves added 23 and the Los Angeles Lakers cruised to a 117-96 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

LeBron James had 20 points and 14 rebounds after being selected for the All-Star Game for the 21st consecutive season earlier in the day.

James also passed Hakeem Olajuwon into seventh place in defensive rebounds in NBA history early in the third quarter. James, who has 9,720, needed six going into the game to pass the Hall of Fame center.

Kristaps Porzingis led Boston with 22 points and Jaylen Brown added 17.

Los Angeles, which has won two straight after a stretch where it dropped four of six, was up by 28 during the fourth quarter.

Takeaways

Celtics: Jayson Tatum, also voted to the All-Star Game, finished with 16 points. Boston played three games in four days and was coming off a 117-113 overtime victory against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Lakers: Gabe Vincent tied a season high with four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Los Angeles hit 11 3-pointers in the first half, tying its season high for the first two quarters. It was 15 of 35 from beyond the arc for the game.

Key moment

James drove past Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser in the lane and finished with a dunk with 8.9 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Lakers a 34-23 lead and finish a 17-5 run to close out the period.

Key stat

Bronny James got into his second straight game and was 0 of 1 from the field in four minutes.

This is how we previewed this game....

Simply put, this is the biggest rivalry in basketball, a long and storied history between the two teams started in the 1960s where the Lakers made it to six Championship Finals, and lost every single one, to the Celtics.

Between the the Lakers (17) and the Celtics (18) have 35 titles, in 77 seasons of NBA (Lakers also have an NBL title), and have faced each other 12 times in the Championship Finals, with Boston holding a commanding lead 9-3.

This season however, both teams are having seasons with a degree of worry, but different scales of worry.

The sportsbooks have Boston listed as 5.5 point favourites at odds of 1.52, expecting a moderately scoring game with the total set at 220.5.

Boston are 2nd in the Eastern Conference, not a position they are used to being in. Cleveland are ruling the roost in the East and the Celtics are 5.5 games behind with a 31-13 (71%) record. Boston are stronger on the road (16-5) than at home court (15-8), and have a 6-4 L10 record, on a W2 streak.

The Lakers are 5th in the Western Conference, 23-18 (56%), with a significantly stronger home record (15-6) than road record (8-12). 5-5 in their L10 on a W1 steak.

Both teams are 3-2 in their last 5, Boston beating LAC 117-113 in their last game, just 24 hours before the Lakers game. Lakers travelled to the East coast 48 hours ago to beat Washington 111-88.

This is the first of only two meetings between these rivals this season (early March for the rematch in Boston) previous games between the two saw LAL win by 9 in Feb 24, BOS by 11 in Dec 23, and BOS by 4 in Jan 23. So not much to go on there.

Lets take a look at what the tipping sites are saying about this monster game.

(Our Player Prop Bet Tips are further down this page)

Dimers - Celtics moneyline
Clutch Points - Celtics -5.5, Over 220.5
Pickswise - Celtics -5
Sportskeeda - Celtics -5.5
Betting Odds - Celtics moneyline
Sportsline - projecting a 117-107 scoreline in favour of Boston, with small bet recommendations on Boston -5, Boston moneyline, and over 221.5.

The Lakers have struggled against top 4 sides from either coast at home this season, losing twice to the Cavs, and once to the Grizzlies, Thunder and Rockets. We can't see a win for the Lakers here, so we won't be value betting, we are going to snap up Boston -5.5 before it goes up a point, and also an Over bet at 220.5, again before that rises.

A poor result in terms of tipping, the game was an Under, largely thanks to a lacklustre performance from Boston (cheers lads), and of course the Lakers won so our bet on Boston to cover the spread was a loser (cheers lads).