Friday, March 7, 9:00 PM on TWSN, ALT

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado

When the Denver Nuggets went to the Staples Center to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan 5, it was Brian Shaw's first time back since becoming the head coach for the Nuggets. They gave a nice present by beating the Lakers 137-115. The Nuggets took it to the Lakers and outscored them 77-54 in the second half. Nate Robinson capped off the night by getting a big dunk with 2:37 left in the game. Robinson hung on the rim and sent a message to his team and the Lakers. Robinson finished this game with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Timofey Mozgov finished the night with 20 points and seven rebounds, Ty Lawson added 20 points and 12 assists, and Kenneth Faried added 17 points and 13 rebounds in this dismantling of the Lakers.

Neither team played much defense in this game as the two teams combined for 252 points and both shot just under 50 percent from the field. One of the biggest differences in this game came from rebounding. The Nuggets out-rebounded the Lakers by a total of 20 finishing with a 58-38 advantage. The Nuggets also gathered 17 offensive rebounds. Pau Gasol was the only Laker that had more than six rebounds in this matchup.

Denver has won five straight games against Los Angeles and won against the spread in all five of those. Over the last 10 games between these two teams the Nuggets are 7-3 ATS and the 'over' has won in six straight games.

Other than head-to-head matchups, there isn't much in the statistics that would tell us Denver has a big advantage over the spread. They have covered in less than 50 percent of their games over the last month and they've been even worse over the course of the last couple weeks.

The Lakers have played a bit better ATS but are certainly not a sure thing.