Suns vs Lakers Odds, Picks, and Predictions Tonight: Defenses Tighten Up Outside Hollywood

The Phoenix Suns opened up their season with a big win at Golden State, and they’ll remain on the road for their second game of the year when they pay a visit to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers tonight Crypton.com Arena.

L.A. didn’t get much cooking on Tuesday against the defending champion Nuggets, and might NBA odds expect that trend to continue tonight and lead us to a low-scoring affair?

Let's dive right into it with our in-depth preview and NBA picks for Suns vs. Lakers plus Eric Rosales' spotlight on LeBron James props.

Finally, we've also got a trio of NBA player props picks for you to round out the betting slate.

Suns vs Lakers odds

Suns vs Lakers predictions

The story remained largely the same for the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night. A team that struggled mightily to score for the majority of the 2022-23 season opened things up against a poor Nuggets defense and managed just a 111.5 offensive rating in a game played with an extremely slow pace of 95.5.

While L.A.’s defense relented, the Nuggets were the top offense in basketball a season ago and their poor numbers on the defensive end should level out a bit as the season wears on.

Most of this Lakers core has returned, and with Anthony Davis manning the paint, the onus should be on the Phoenix Suns to shoot the three well. With some rust involved and Bradley Beal on the bench, this team shot just 33.3% from deep. Beal was initially expected back but was ruled out on Thursday afternoon. To make matters worse for the offense, Devin Booker was also scratched with a foot injury.

Beal, himself, should show a bit of rust after a cautious offseason and there’s no guarantee the Suns will even trot him out there for his full complement of minutes.

I land on the Under here. I think the Lakers offense will improve a bit this season with the addition of Christian Wood, but it should take a little while to fully gel. On the other side, I don’t think the defense looked as bad in Game 1 as the numbers indicate and there should be a slight let-off with the Suns. Phoenix, too, didn’t look at its best on that end to open the season.

With the injuries already forcing Phoenix to roll out a different lineup than originally intended, scoring may be hard to come by.

My best bet: Under 226 (-105 at DraftKings) 50% boost available

Suns vs Lakers same-game parlay

Under 225.5

Anthony Davis Under 13.5 rebounds

LeBron James 1+ threes

50% boost available

+330 +495 at DraftKings

While the Under hitting should mean plenty of missed shots, I’m not quite sure that means the ball will repeatedly fall into Davis' hands.

Davis already averaged just 13 rebounds in games where LeBron James didn’t play last season, and with James in the lineup, that number fell by around three boards. On top of that, the Suns are poised to be a much better rebounding team with Jusuf Nurkic taking over at center for Deandre Ayton. Phoenix snatched 53.3% of available rebounds against a decent rebounding team in the Warriors, a season after grabbing roughly 50%, and I expect this to become a trend.

The 'Brow grabbed just eight boards on opening night against a Nuggets team he should be able to gain an edge on the boards against, and that had a lot to do with the fact that James stole away plenty of rebounds.

Nurkic also shores up the Suns’ interior defense, which leads me to my final leg. I’d love to get cute and play James to go for two threes made, but I’ll stick with just the one — something he hit in every preseason game and in the opening contest of the season. He and Davis won’t find it very easy to score in the post, and that means they should be playing on the perimeter plenty. In a parlay, we can throw this in as a sweetener.

Learn how to bet a same-game parlay with these helpful tips and strategies.

Suns vs Lakers and Over/Under analysis

I think the Lakers are worth buying low on early in the year, but it’s hard for me to get behind laying points with them as a six-point favorite with how they looked in the opener.

With Beal and Booker sidelined, though, that spread is definitely coming into focus. Still, the Lakers never got going against a weak Denver defense and without a way to score in bunches, the chances of them running away with this one are slim.

A solid 76% of the bets on the spread at DraftKings are with the Suns and the points, with 71% of the money coming in that way as well. While just 38% of the tickets are the Under, a strong 54% of the handle wagered on the total is on the Under.

Suns vs Lakers betting trend to know

The Under was 18-13 last season when the Lakers were home favorites. Find more NBA betting trends for Suns vs. Lakers.

Suns vs Lakers game info

Suns vs Lakers latest injuries

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