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Steffen Schmidt - November 5, 2022
Los Angeles Lakers host Cleveland Cavaliers in the first game of Sunday’s NBA schedule at Crypto.com Arena.
Analysis and Reason for Predictions
Cleveland Cavaliers travel to Crypto.com Arena to face Los Angeles Lakers in the first game of the day on Sunday afternoon.
The Cavs could have hardly imagined a better start to the new season following a streak of six successive wins.
They even survived a big scare by beating last season’s NBA Finals contestants Boston Celtics 114-113 at home after overtime.
The Cavs are inside the top 8 teams in the league in both offensive and defensive ratings. They boast the third-best defensive record after the opening 20 days of the season.
Darius Garland offered a phenomenal performance with 29 points and 12 assists in the win over the Celtics on Wednesday, while Donovan Mitchell chipped in with 25 points and 6 assist on the evening.
Los Angeles Lakers seem to be waking up. They managed back-to-back wins over the likes of Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans after dropping five consecutive outings at the beginning of the season.
Darvin Ham has managed to instill some confidence into his lads. The Lakers’ main issues were bound to the lack of offensive creativity at the very start to the campaign.
However, the team bagged 121 and 120 points in the respective wins over Denver and New Orleans.
The Lakers have just received another strong offensive option in the like of Lonnie Walker who had 28 points in the overtime win over the Pelicans on Wednesday.
LeBron James flirted with the triple double (was just 2 assists shy), while Anthony David posted a big double-double with 20 points and 16 boards on the occasion.
This will be a very exciting affair between two in-form sides. The Lakers will be looking to take advantage of the momentum after the recent wins with the help of the home crowd at Crypto.com Arena. We would not be surprised to see the hosts snatching another victory here.
The best pick would, however, be Under 215.5 points in the game at the -110 odds since this is the match between two of the top-three defenses in the league. We’ll also back the Lakers’ moneyline at the +100 odds.
