NBA Western Conference Matchup Lakers @ Hornets

Tip-off: 8:05 pm est.

The Los Angeles Lakers travel to New Orleans to take on the Hornets Tuesday night. The NBA scheduling gods were kind enough to make the Lakers travel all the way back to L.A. to take on the Celtics on Christmas Day. Most sports betting fans automatically recognize how difficult of a trip that’s going to be for the Lakers. Their minds may not be on their game on Tuesday night against the Hornets which is why the Lakers are underdogs. Against the BetOnline online betting spread, Los Angeles just hasn’t been very good lately. The Lakers are 0 and 10 against the BetOnline online betting spread in their last 10 games. That’s an incredible streak of futility when it comes to online NBA betting. Worse is the fact that the Lakers are 1 and 2 straight-up in their last three games.

The New Orleans Hornets haven’t been much better against the BetOnline online betting spread. New Orleans is 10-11-2 against the BetOnline online wagering spread in their last 23 games. But at home they are only 5-6-1 against the spread. The Hornets are slowly getting better going 16-7 straight-up so far this season and they have won four games in a row. They just haven’t been covering for basketball betting fans.

Here are the BetOnline online NBA betting odds for this game:

Los Angeles Lakers + 3 – 110 O 195 ½ – 110

New Orleans Hornets -3 – 110 U 195 ½ – 110

Here are a few online wagering trends that might help us find a good online bet in this game:

The Los Angeles Lakers are 0 and 5 against the spread in their last 5 games on the road.

The Under is 8 and 2 in the Los Angeles Lakers last 10 games as the underdog.

The New Orleans Hornets are 7-1-1 against the spread in their last 9 games as the favorite.

The Under is 5 and 0 in the New Orleans Hornets last 5 games overall.

The trends point to this being a very close game but a very low scoring game. The BetOnline Total is assuming that neither team will get 98 points. That could be a prescient idea as the Hornets have only scored over 100 points once in their last 6 games and that was 105 against the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Lakers have scored 105 and 103 in two out of three of their last three games. The problem with L.A. is that Jordan Farmar is out indefinitely and his loss could hurt this team.

But there’s something that does makes more sense in this game than betting the under. The Hornets are hot and it’s never a good idea to go against a hot team. This is the first time that the Lakers won’t be favored in about twelve straight games. It’s tempting to take the Lakers and the points in this game, but I can’t do it.

To me the only real online wager is on the New Orleans Hornets. I see them as the type of home team that will come up big in this one. Plus the Lakers can’t help but think about the big Christmas Day match-up against Big Green.

So, I’ll be making an online NBA bet on the New Orleans Hornets to cover the 3 point online wagering spread in the BetOnline Sportsbook.