Following a subpar showing on Tuesday in Dallas, oddsmakers have very little confidence in the Lakers pulling off an upset in Utah today. As of 2:30PM PST today, FanDuel had the Lakers listed as 13.5 point underdogs for the contest.
They join the Pacers (+14.5) and Blazers (+14.5) as the other two road teams to be listed as double-digit underdogs by the website. The latter isn't good news for Lakers fans since Portland will be playing the first of back-to-back games against the team that LA is battling for the final play-in tournament spot, the San Antonio Spurs.
Granted, LeBron James is out for the matchup and Anthony Davis is doubtful so that strongly affects the line, but it's another reminder of how poorly this team has played as of late. Even with their backs against the wall.
LA has lost three games in row and on the season, sports a 6-14 record when LeBron doesn't play. They're narrowly ahead of the Spurs for the tenth-seed and must pull the rabbit out of the hat in order to have a shot at making the playoffs.
The Jazz enter tonight's game fresh off blowing a 25-point lead to the Clippers in an epic meltdown loss that would even make the Lakers jealous. Utah's star guard, Donovan Mitchell, accidentally iced the game for the Clippers by calling a timeout when Utah was out of timeouts. With ten seconds left, Mitchell was assessed a technical foul. Game over.
Utah is 4-6 in their last ten games and hasn't displayed the chemistry of last year's top seeded Jazz team.
Still, books do not believe that LA has a significant chance to beat Utah for the third time this year.
After completing their three-game road trip tonight, the Lakers have a brief homestand that features games against the Pelicans (Friday) and the Nuggets (Sunday). After that, they'll hit the road again to play the Suns followed by the Warriors.
The return of one, if not both of their superstars will drastically swing how oddsmakers handicap future Lakers games, but bettors have little confidence in LA pulling off the upset on Thursday.