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The Los Angeles Lakers would be eliminated from contention for the Western Conference play-in tournament should they lose on Tuesday at Phoenix and the Spurs win in Denver also Tuesday. The NBA odds for this one will be determined by whether LeBron James plays among a few other guys.

How to Bet Lakers at Suns NBA Odds & TV Info

When: Tuesday, 10:30 PM ET
Where: Footprint Center
TV: NBA TV
Stream: NBA.com, NBA TV app
Radio: Tunein.com
NBA Odds: TBA

Season Series

The Suns lead 3-0 and have won each by at least 10 points. The teams last played March 13 in Phoenix and the Suns prevailed 140-111. Devin Booker scored 30 points, Deandre Ayton had 23 points and 16 rebounds in just 27 minutes. Booker also had 10 assists and four steals. LeBron James led the Lakers with 31 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He did not play in the fourth quarter. James reached a milestone with his 10,000th career assist in the second quarter on Carmelo Anthony’s 3-pointer. James is the only player in NBA history with at least 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists. The two teams have met 258 times, with the Lakers leading the all-time series 146-112.

Why Bet on LA Lakers?

The Lakers would be eliminated from a chance at the Western Conference play-in tournament if they lose and San Antonio wins in Denver. Essentially, the Lakers have to win out and have the Nuggets lose out to have a shot. It’s not going to happen.

Los Angeles dropped its sixth straight game Sunday, 129-118 vs. Denver and playing without LeBron James. James had missed two games with the left ankle sprain last week, but returned on Friday only to sit again Sunday. James is averaging a career-high 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 56 games so far this season. He leads the NBA in scoring but just barely over Joel Embiid.

LeBron is approaching yet another milestone in his 19th season as he looks to become the NBA’s all-time leader in games with 20+ points. James is just four games away from passing Karl Malone (1,134) for the most such games in NBA history. According to Lakers head coach Frank Vogel, James will be day-to-day as the regular season comes to a conclusion over the next week. The Lakers are 6-16 in games that James has missed this season.

Anthony Davis played 35 minutes in Sunday’s loss and had 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. But as the game progressed, he appeared to be laboring on his sore right foot. Following the game, Davis said that it’s important that he plays through the soreness, and team trainers have told him that the injury cannot get any worse. His eight assists mark his most in a regular season game since joining the Lakers.

“I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have been, had we stayed healthy all year,” said Davis, who has missed 39 of L.A.’s 78 games because of various injuries. “What could we have been. … Guys feel like, ‘OK, what could we have been if I was healthy all year, [LeBron James] was healthy, [Kendrick] Nunn was healthy.’ You think about those things. We put this team together and it looked good on paper, but we haven’t had a chance to reach that potential with guys in and out of the lineup.

Russell Westbrook finished Sunday’s loss with 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. He’s now scored 24 or more in three of his last four games. Westbrook made 10 straight shots, good for the most consecutive shots he has made in any game of his career, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

Carmelo Anthony shot 8-of-18 from the field for 17 points. Anthony, who was back in the lineup after missing Friday’s loss to the Pelicans due to illness, shot just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

Why Bet on Phoenix?

The Suns really have no reason to care the rest of the regular season because they have clinched the best record in the NBA – although they are one shy of setting the team record with a 63^rd win. The 1992-93 and 2004-05 teams also won 62 games. The Suns are 46-0 this season when leading after three quarters of play.

Phoenix rested Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Jae Crowder on Sunday and was upset 117-96 at Oklahoma City. Booker is averaging 26.6 points while playing on a team with a .795 winning percentage. In NBA history, every player who has averaged 26+ points on a team with at least a .775 win percentage (64-18 or better in an 82-game season) has either won NBA MVP in that season, or finished as runner-up in NBA MVP voting to another player on the list.

Backup center Olivier Sarr scored a career-high 24 points and Aleksej Pokuveski recorded his first career triple-double for the Thunder in Sunday’s upset. OKC put seven players in double figures and took advantage of the Suns’ worst 3-point shooting effort of the season. Phoenix hit just 7 of 38 (18.4%) beyond the arc, well below its previous season low of 22% in a January win over Dallas.

Chris Paul was limited to just 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field. CP3 added two rebounds, nine assists, two steals and two turnovers while he was out there, but he was also 0-of-3 from distance. Paul currently ranks first in the NBA in assists per game (10.7) and second in steals per game (1.8) this season. Only six players in NBA history have led the league in both categories for a season.

Mikal Bridges finished with 18 points and has put up 18-plus points in 10 of his last 13 contests while shooting 57.0 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from deep in those games. The fourth-year forward has recorded double-digit points in 18 straight games and in 30 of his last 31. Bridges is the only NBA player to not miss a game for any reason past 3 seasons.

The Suns enter ranked 3rd in offensive rating this season (114.8), 2nd in defensive rating (106.6) and 1st in net rating (+8.2), the only team in the league to rank in the top-three in all three categories. Since advanced ratings began being tracked during the 1996-97 season, only the 2014-15 and 2016-17 Golden State Warriors have finished in the top-three in offensive, defensive and net rating for a season. In both of those seasons, the Warriors went on to win the NBA Finals.

The Suns have won 14 of the last 19 meetings vs. LA played in Phoenix, including 11 straight from 2012-2017.