T.M. Selection: Lakers/76ers UNDER.

I am on the under in the LA Lakers vs Philadelphia 76ers game on Thursday. The Lakers just won their most recent game on the road over the Nets and this game saw the return of Anthony Davis after being out for weeks. Davis didn't contribute a lot of offense in his return but there was a great defensive effort from the team, holding the Nets to less than 100 points. The Lakers haven't been putting up a lot of points lately though, they have put up 110+ points in just 1 of their previous 6 games. I don't see the Lakers fixing their scoring problem over night and I don't think they are going to win this game by outscoring the 76ers on the road here. I think the Lakers will need to play some good defense in this game and I think they will be able to play better on defense with Davis back in their lineup. The Clippers have been involved in a lot of high scoring games lately but I think that is not going to be the case here. The 76ers have put up 115+ points in 3 of their previous 4 games but those 3 games were all against opposing teams with records nowhere near to .500. The only team they played during that time that had a record close to .500 was the Clippers and that was the 1 game they lost by a score of 102-101. Before these 4 games, they actually had 5 games in a row where 1 team didn't put up 100+ points in the game, and 4 of those games were against teams with a record near .500 or higher. The Lakers haven't been having the year that they were hoping for but they are still not a bad team and are in the mix for the playoffs. I think now that Davis is back they will start to make a big push for the playoffs and try to go on a big run while everyone is still healthy. I think the Lakers are going to give the 76ers a good challenge in this game and I expect both teams to play good defense here. I like the under in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 101-97 Lakers.