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The season from hell is expected to continue for Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers when they travel to play the high-flying and in-form San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T center. Join The Roar for live scores of the match from 2:30pm (AEDT).
It has been a tale of mixed fortunes for these two teams, as the Lakers have gone from struggle to struggle, while the Spurs have managed to go from highlight to highlight.
As we pass the halfway point of the season, the Spurs are sitting very comfortable in second position of the Eastern Conference, only behind the Golden State Warriors who they have been slowly catching over the last fortnight.
Having won their last 12 games in a row, they now sit with a record of 37 wins and six losses, just two games back from the Warriors.
For the Lakers, they sit dead last in the Western Conference, and it really doesn’t look like changing. Scoring has been their biggest issue, as they are the lowest scoring team in the west.
With a record of nine wins and 35 losses from their 44 games they are now four games back from the team ahead of them, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and look destined to stay pinned to the bottom.
Last time the teams met, in the first game of a four match season series, it was the Spurs who recorded a demolishing win over the Lakers. Taking it by 22 points, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter when they really started to pull away and the Lakers just couldn’t match them as they went up a gear.
In that game, it was all LaMarcus Aldridge as he dropped 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, while Kawhi Leonard joined in the fun with 16 points and also 11 rebounds.
In all fairness to the Lakers, the Spurs really don’t need to play at anywhere near their best to defeat them and so it could be a good opportunity for them to give some of their other guys some court time.
The Lakers really had little offensive direction last time these two teams met, but then again that’s been an issue for them for much of the season. Making limited assists, and relying on scorers such as Kobe Bryant and D’Angelo Russell to do all the work is the way it has been, but they will need so much more to compete the with the Spurs.
Prediction
This is shaping up as one of the biggest mismatches of the season. Second in the west vs last in the west and it is hard to see the Lakers even competing. The size of the victory margin may actually depend on how much playing time the Spurs give some of their second unit of players. Even then it could still be huge.
Spurs by 29.
Join The Roar for live scores of a game that could be very one sided from 2:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below if you’re following along with the action.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde