Lakers/Bulls Under 225

This bet focuses around two teams dealing with injuries and not much left to play for.  It’s been confirmed Zach Lavine will be out for this game.  He is leading the Bulls in scoring at 23.8PPG and assists at 4.4ASP.  He has been the most consistent offensive performer for the Bulls this season.  He has the ball in his hands a lot and likes to push the tempo. Without him in the lineup I think the Bulls are going to have to run a lot more offensive sets to create shots for guys who aren’t as skilled to create on their own.

The Lakers are dealing with even more injuries.  Lonzo Ball has been out for some time now and will continue to be out the remainder of the season.  Kuzma has been day to day missing the last couple games because of an ankle injury, his return to action tonight remains questionable.  I’m leaning they rest him considering they are all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention or if he does play he probably will be more timid than usual on that sore ankle.  It was also recently determined that Brandon Ingram’s shoulder injury will keep him out the rest of the season, so add another 18.3PPG to the inactive list.

This basically leaves Lebron James as your only legit scoring option for the Lakers.  If anyone can carry a team offensively it’s Lebron, but particularly at this later stage of his career he will opt to do it in a more methodical fashion.  Not to mention if the Bulls have any kind of game plan at all it would be to get the ball out of his hands with lots of double teams, and try to make anyone else (whose names I probably haven’t heard of) try to beat you.