The Los Angeles Lakers are entering a pivotal stretch of their season. They started an eight-game home-stand three games ago and now have 12 of their next 15 games at Crypto.com Arena, which could make all the difference in the tightly-packed Western Conference standings. Los Angeles currently holds the fifth seed, one game behind the third-seeded Denver Nuggets but only one and a half games ahead of the seventh-seeded Phoenix Suns.
The Lakers’ task grew much tougher on Tuesday afternoon, when LeBron James ($8,900), Austin Reaves ($8,200), and Marcus Smart ($5,200) were ruled out for tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, joining Luka Dončić ($11,700) on the shelf. Critically, it’ll be James’ 18th missed game of the season, making him ineligible for the All-NBA teams and ending a record 21-year streak that began in 2004-05, his second season in the league. James has 13 first-team, four second-team, and four third-team appearances.
With Los Angeles extremely undermanned, it could provide an opportunity for some lesser-used players to earn more playing time. Since three of the Lakers’ top four guards are out, Luke Kennard ($4,100) could be in line to earn his first start in his third game with his new team, and second-year pros Dalton Knecht ($3,000) and Bronny James ($3,000) — who have mostly been limited to garbage-time duty — could earn rotational minutes. Jake LaRavia ($4,600) and Ayton are likely to see a jump in usage (if the latter plays), and Rui Hachimura ($4,400) could step back into the starting lineup.
Hachimura is probably my favorite value play. Thanks to potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate Victor Wembanyama ($9,700) manning the middle, San Antonio concedes relatively few restricted-area tries and allows among the most wide-open threes and the most midrange jumpers. That could work well for Hachimura, whose 46.5% accuracy on wide-open threes is the 13th-best among the 120 players who have attempted at least 100 such shots this season. Hachimura has also been the most accurate among the 62 players who have attempted at least 75 middies.
Prior to the latest batch of injury news, the Spurs were 9.5-point favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook, but they are now 12.5-point favorites (-575 on the Moneyline), with the point total set to 224.5. Los Angeles is +425 on the Moneyline.
