This Lakers First Half Betting Trend Shows They Are a Must Fade

The Los Angeles Lakers have a lot going for them and are a team full of star talent. From LeBron James to Anthony Davis to Russell Westbrook. When all is said and done, there could be more than a couple of Hall of Famers on this roster. This begs the question, why are the Lakers so bad? That is a question with many answers. But, I wanted to look at a few key areas that the Lakers are failing this year. 

First off, as bad as things have been for the Lakers, they are looking even bleaker lately, as Erin Kate Dolan points out. LA is 0-10 against the spread in the first half of their last ten games overall. The Lakers are also 1-9 ATS in the first half in their last ten games at the Crypto.com Arena. While these are just 1H ATS stats, they are indicative of their overall level of stink right now. The Lakers are just 2-7 ATS in their last nine games and haven’t covered an away game since Jan. 12. Basically, they are an auto-fade in my book and cannot be trusted to cover. 

I believe a lot of their issues come down to the other struggling to stay healthy. Particularly, Anthony Davis. He continues to show that he’s a very unreliable superstar despite his obvious skills. He has played just 70 games twice in his career and managed just 36 last season with the Lakers. This has forced an aging LeBron James to take over most games and I don’t think he has enough left in the tank to do that every night. Another problem that has been in the news a lot lately is the poor attitude of Russell Westbrook.

The Lakers are probably regretting making the move to trade him as the former MVP looks like a shell of the player he once was. He’s always been a very suspect shooter, and now without his legendary athleticism, his game looks pretty weak. He doesn’t fit with this team and now is taking whole plays off on both ends of the court. This leads me to my final point. This roster, while stocked with HOF talent, is old. These guys are closer to the HOF than they are to their draft dates and it isn’t working. The Lakers are just too slow and can’t keep pace with the young talent in the league. Their ATS record proves that and I would recommend avoiding them on the spread until something changes.