The Lakers begin a long road swing tonight; an eight-game trip that runs through the end of the month. They

Butler comes into tonight

Chicago is in the midst of a seven-game road trip, but things have not gotten off to a good start. The Bulls

UTEP has played second fiddle to Memphis over the last four years. Memphis just had the superior team over that time, but despite the talent difference, UTEP always gave the Tigers fits. In fact, the last four games between these two have all been decided by 11 points or less. But tonight, things are a lot different.

Memphis has won 64 consecutive C-USA games, but that streak is in serious jeopardy against UTEP. The Miners may actually be the more talented team, and they want this game in the worst way. "We're not worried about their streak," head coach Tony Barbee said. "We're worried about us. It's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to go on the road and steal one against a very good team."

Five UTEP players come from Memphis which adds to their desire to win. "I grew up watching them and always dreamed of playing for them," Myron Strong said. "I never thought about playing against them. It will be great, seeing my family and having them see me play. I'm sure it will make me even more aggressive. I'm sure we will have a crowd of fans there, too." And Jeremy Williams echoes those same thoughts. "This is an experience you live for. You come to college with dreams. My dream is going back to play in front of that crowd. But now nothing would be better than to go back and beat them, to end their streak."

The Miners also have the confidence that can win on this court as they had Memphis on the ropes in their last trip here. Memphis was ranked # 1 in the nation, but UTEP led 60-58 with 3:45 to play, trailed by one, 63-62, with 1:18 to go, before falling 70-64. "We've just got to do like coach always says; go out and punch them in the mouth; be aggressive."

Play UTEP (+).

Drake continues to be an undervalued team right now. The Bulldogs have covered four straight games as an underdog, and they

Indiana is a much different team right now because they

Tennessee has played a lot better than expected since the suspension of four players because of their marijuana and gun possession bust. The Vols have won all four of the games they

These two haven

Sacramento has hit the wall recently; the Kings have lost three straight and eight of their last ten games. And a major reason for that has been their lack of offensive production. The Kings have been held to 88 points or less in their last three games as they

Utah is playing some good basketball right now. The Jazz have won four straight and five of their last six games overall. They

Illinois St comes into tonight

Saint Louis came through for us the other night in their 79-75 double overtime win at Duquesne. And we

Southern Illinois is on a 4-game losing streak. Prior to their game at Creighton on Wednesday night, we detailed the reason why the Salukis were struggling. During a walk through prior to their game at Illinois St, their best player, Tony Freeman, suffered a broken nose. Freeman is the Salukis best player, and his broken nose has been a big reason why this team has struggled in their last few games. But Freeman had surgery on the nose since, and he came back to play a full game (13 points in 34 minutes) in SIU

USC comes into tonight

Ole Miss is a very good team that has played the much tougher schedule to date, so they have a big advantage coming into this game. They

Oklahoma City comes in off an overtime home loss to the Spurs. But the Thunder have been at their best this season when playing off a loss. In games directly following a loss, the Thunder have gone 13-3 ATS so far this year. As an underdog in that role, they

Cleveland comes into this game pistol hot; they

Boston enters tonight off a dominating win in New Jersey last night. The Celtics won that game by 24 points (111-87). They shot an incredible 53.1% (43-81) from the field with seven different players scoring in double digits. Rajon Rondo played spectacular at the point as he had 14 assists and just one turnover on the night. But Rondo has historically played poorly in back-to-back games, and off such a good performance last night, it

Wisconsin Green-Bay returns home off a dismal 3-game road trip in which they lost two of the three games. The two losses were in blowout fashion; a 23-point loss at Butler and a 20-point loss at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And off a couple of terrible games, we expect the Phoenix to come out tonight with great urgency on their strong home court. They

Southern Illinois is on a 3-game losing streak, but they

Minnesota

Saint Louis is a difficult to team to play because of the system they run under head coach Rick Majerus. The Billikens run complex offensive sets that just frustrate opponents into half-court games. And Saint Louis is most effective when they are playing a team that loves to run up and down the court at a frenetic pace. Majerus is too smart of a coach to allow his team to get caught-up in a running game tonight, and he

The Lakers come into tonight

Missouri St has been the surprise of the Missouri Valley Conference this season. The Bears were one of the worst teams in the league last year, and they

Cleveland comes into tonight

It

Villanova is in a tough spot for this game tonight. Because of their small lineup, the Wildcats are guard heavy with little height in the paint. And small, guard-orientated teams are the ones Louisville matches-up well against.

Oregon State enters off their worst home loss in the history of the program. The Beavers lost 99-48 to the Seattle on Wednesday night, and head coach Craig Robinson took it to his team in practice. "Making practice so unbearable that they forget about it," Robinson said. "It's got to be shock treatment. They have to be treated like when I first got here: like they can't play. It has to be painful enough that they don't want to go through this again."

While the Beavers are going through rigorous practices, Oregon is fat and happy off their back-to-back road wins at Washington State and Washington. The Ducks won both of those game as significant road underdogs, but now they return home and have to lay a stiff price into their arch rival that is hungry to erase an ugly blowout loss.

In last year

The consensus on Gonzaga coming into this season was that the Zags were going to regress after losing a ton of talent from last year

UTEP is a very good team out of Conference-USA. The Miners won 23 games a season ago and went to the finals of the CBI tournament, and they return four starters from that team. They also added two high-impact transfers in Derrick Caracter (Louisville) and Christian Polk (Arizona St). This year

Both teams played last night, but only one team put energy into their game. Dallas played at San Antonio in a spotlight game that always gets the best out of both teams. The Mavs wanted that game after losing the two previous meetings this year. But after three quarters, they found themselves down by 10. Dallas played a monster fourth quarter in out-scoring the Spurs 42-23 to snag a misleading 9-point win. The Mavs exerted a ton of energy in that comeback, and that will leave them empty in this game tonight.

Utah was playing a home-and-home set with Memphis last night. The Jazz waxed the Grizzlies by 23 points in the first game so with such a quick turnaround, Utah was going to get Memphis

Oklahoma has some serious motivation for this game tonight. Head coach Jeff Capel was so disappointed with his team

This will be just the second true road game for Duke this season. In their only other game played on an opponent

The Lakers offense isn

Orlando enters tonight

UNLV head coach Lon Kruger is one of the best in the country. Kruger doesn

Atlanta enters tonight on a 4-game losing streak, and they hit rock-bottom in their latest loss to the Heat. The Hawks lost that game 92-75 as their offense was just dreadful; they shot 35.2% (25-71) from the field and a dismal 21.4% (3-14) from three-point land. Those numbers are way off Atlanta

Houston has had a full 2 days of rest for tonight

William & Mary has been a big surprise this year; the Tribe have jumped out to a 10-2 start this season. They are a perfect 8-0 ATS, but all of those wins have come in the role of an underdog. This is their first game in which they are favored, and it

This game sets-up nicely for a low-scoring game because of the injury situations on both teams. Denver has been playing without point guard Chauncey Billups for the past six games and their offense has shown no ability to generate points like they can when he

Utah is an extremely young team this season, and that youth has been exposed in their road games. The Utes are just 1-3 away from home with all three losses coming by at least 7 points or more. And their win came on a neutral court over Illinois in a game in which they trailed 32-16 at the half, so they actually should be winless on the road. Tonight they are going to run into a fired-up LSU team looking to avenge their worst loss of last year, a 91-61 defeat at Utah.

LSU is a perfect 8-0 at home this year, and off back-to-back road losses, we expect a peak performance from the Tigers in this spot. They

Atlanta was really pumped for last night

This game will have a playoff atmosphere as the Hawks have knockout revenge after getting swept 4-0 by Cleveland last year. All four of those games were extremely low scoring, and tonight

If you just look at West Virginia

This game sets-up nicely for a low-scoring game. Denver has been playing without point guard Chauncey Billups for the past five games and their offense has shown no ability to generate points like they can when he

Charlotte appears to be a terrible road team as they are just 1-12 away from home this season. But the win/loss record actually creates some tremendous value in taking this team in the role of a road underdog because they simply do not lose many games by big margins. Of their 12 road losses, eight of them have come by 6 points or less. So with a bounce here or there, the Bobcats could actually have a decent win/loss record on the road, and not the unimpressive one they have.

Tyson Chandler will miss tonight

Both teams enter off bad defensive efforts in their last games. Cleveland was taken to overtime at Sacramento the other night after allowing the kings to score 104 points in regulation. The Kings went scoreless in the extra session which prevented the points allowed by the Cavs from being much worse. But off that bad defensive effort, we can expect Cleveland to bring their best here in a spotlight game against Kobe and the Lakers.

Los Angeles is also off a bad defensive performance, but they have an excuse for that poor showing. The Lakers were in a terrible spot as they were returning home off a 5-game road trip with only one day of rest. They were also looking ahead to tonight

The Celtics will be without Paul Pierce for this game as he had to have his knee drained because of an infection. And when news broke of Pierce being out, the pointspread quickly shot up. But that only gives us a couple of extra points to take Boston in this spot. We see this happen all the time in sports; the best player is out and the line gets inflated yet that team brings their best effort. The team knows they need to step-up their game because they are shorthanded, and they do, and play a much closer game than expected.

Kevin Garnett missed Boston

The Celtics will be without Paul Pierce for this game as he had to have his knee drained because of an infection. There

This looks like a prime spot to play-against Cleveland. The Cavaliers enter off a big 18-point win at Phoenix on Monday night. They shot the lights-out in that game; they shot 52.6% (41-78) from the field and 41.7% from three-point land. Off that spotlight win, and with a big Christmas Day game at the Lakers on deck, it

The two coaches know each other real well as Mississippi head coach Andy Kennedy worked for four years as an assistant under West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins at Cincinnati. Kennedy implemented the same schemes and systems that he learned under Huggins when he took over at Ole Miss, so both teams are familiar with what the other team is running.

This is a tough scheduling spot for the Lakers. They return home off a successful 5-game road trip in which they went 4-1. This first game back at home is a spot where we typically see teams not bring their best effort. And the Lakers are fully aware of that being the case. "That first game back is always the toughest, probably because of all the travel and your body still getting acclimated to the time zone," Kobe Bryant said. "You're trying to get back into a routine, and get a handle on all the stuff that goes on when you're home. There is the potential for distractions"

Kobe is also dealing with the broken finger on his right shooting hand, which he says, still hurts. "It's probably going to bother me for the next month or so," he said. The Lakers also have a much bigger game on deck as they

Dallas played an inspired game on Sunday night as they were without Dirk Nowitski who was out because of an elbow injury. The Mavs beat Cleveland 102-95 as they got a total team effort with six players scoring in double digits. But we often see that happen when the star player is out, but in the next game, the team usually misses their key guy and cannot match their production from the previous game. Nowitski is doubtful for tonight, so Dallas figures to regress off the big Cleveland win.

The Trail Blazers have won three of their last four after going through a stretch of injuries of their own. Portland is finally learning how to play without some of their guys, and this team just fights in every game they play. "We've got a number of reasons why we could put our heads down, but no one's even talking about that," guard Brandon Roy said. "Coach McMillan is still coaching as if we've got all our guys and we should win every game. And that's just the approach we've taken as players. There's no quit in here."

Portland matches up well with Dallas as the last four games in this series have all been close. They only have one win in those four games, but the Blazers three losses have only come by 8, 5, and 4 points. And Nowitski was a big part of those wins as he scored 29, 16, and 30 points. So without him on the floor tonight, Portland has the edge and takes this game down to the wire.

Play TRAIL BLAZERS (+).

Orlando has been dominating teams at home this season. The Magic are 10-2 SU at home, and eight of those ten wins have come by 8 points or more. As good as the Magic are at home, the Jazz are as bad on the road. Utah is only 5-7 SU on the road, but five of those seven losses have come by 9 points or more. So when we combine the in-season spread results of these two teams based on their home and away results, we get a 13-4 ATS number that favors Orlando.

The Magic also want to atone for their poor showing out in Utah 11 days ago. Orlando jumped out to a 35-22 first quarter lead, but then they fell apart as the Jazz out-scored them by 22 points over the second and third quarter to win the game by 9 (120-111). The Jazz shot 50% from the field in that game and also shot 14 more free throws. But expect those numbers to reverse here as the Magic are much better offensively and defensively on their home floor. Utah has won two of their road games on this current trip, but they

Wichita St has quietly won seven straight games after losing to Pittsburgh back in late November. The Shockers are a very good team, and they play on a very strong home court. And their home court will be a difficult test for a Texas Tech team that hasn

These two teams are coming into tonight

Oklahoma City enters off back-to-back losses, at home to Cleveland 102-89 and at Denver 102-93. In that Cavs game, the Thunder actually held a 5-point lead at the half and only trailed by a bucket heading into the fourth quarter. But after a bad shooting quarter and only 13 points scored, the final score looked a lot worse than how the game actually played out. And the loss at Denver can be excused because the Thunder were playing the next night in thin air and altitude after a disappointing end to the Cleveland game.

After a loss this season, Oklahoma City has bounced back strong. In a game following a loss, the Thunder have gone 9-1 against the spread. As an underdog in that role, they

This game sets-up nicely for a high scoring game. The Lakers are playing on a back-to-back road set after beating the Bulls 96-87 last night. Los Angeles was actually trailing by a point going into the fourth quarter so they had to exert some extra energy in order to get that win. So their defense figures to struggle tonight because of that, and when facing a high-scoring Milwaukee offense, that certainly is not a good thing.

The Bucks have had 3 days of rest coming into tonight

UTEP is a very good team out of Conference-USA. The Miners won 23 games a season ago and went to the finals of the CBI tournament, and they return four starters from that team. They also added two high-impact transfers in Derrick Caracter (Louisville) and Christian Polk (Arizona St). This year

Murray St is the class of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Racers are off to a fast start at 8-1 with the lone loss coming by just 5 points at Pac-10 favorite California. There

This game will be a wild, high-scoring shootout. Both teams love to play really fast, getting up and down the court while trying to score as many points as they can. Wyoming ranks second in the Mountain West as they average 80 points per game. The Cowboys are a team that Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl is well aware of their preferred playing style. "Wyoming turns people over 21 times a game," Pearl said. "They run, and they press, and they're big and athletic and fast, and they've got a deep bench. They absolutely will not mind running with us.

New Orleans finally got Chris Paul back in the lineup four games ago, and their offense has really picked up the pace. The Hornets have scored 96 points or more in every one of those games while shooting 46.8% from the field. That shooting percentage is up for the Hornets

The Jazz possess one of the strongest home court edges in the league and this advantage is amplified when an opponent is playing without rest in the thin air and altitude of Salt Lake City. That will be the case tonight for the Lakers as they just played in Los Angeles last night and Kobe Bryant suffered a broken finger which could leave him less than healthy tonight.

Utah is 10-3 SU (9-4 ATS) at home this season compared to just 3-6 SU/ATS on the road. The Jazz are coming off a solid 120-111 home underdog win versus a strong Orlando squad on Thursday and the Jazz should carry the momentum into tonight

Northern Iowa has been pointing towards this game since last season. The Panthers traveled to Siena for a Bracket Buster game, but left with a 6-point loss (81-75). Northern Iowa was overwhelmed in the first half and they trailed 40-19 at the break. But once they settled down, they were able to out-score Siena by 15 points (56-41) in the second half. And that high-paced game is not the way the Panthers want to play, and with this game on their home court, they

The Knicks enter tonight

Orlando has been one of the best road teams in the NBA over the past few years. And their record on the West Coast has been outstanding over that time as well. The Magic have gone 15-5 straight-up in those games which includes a current 10-1 run against Western teams. On this current trip, Orlando beat the Warriors by 8 and beat the Clippers by 11 points on Tuesday night.

The Magic also hold a couple of key advantages for tonight

Kentucky is an extremely talented team, but they are also a young team that is learning a new system under new head coach John Calipari. And they are in a very difficult scheduling spot for tonight

Portland has been hit hard by the injury bug this season. The Trail Blazers have already lost Greg Oden for the season and are missing forwards Travis Outlaw and Nicolas Batum. And now guard Rudy Fernandez has been lost for about a month. And in their first game in New York without these guys on the court, the Blazers

The Kansas St players have been looking forward to tonight

Toronto

Oklahoma City enters off an embarrassing 105-87 home loss to the Celtics on Friday night. The Thunder have not played since, and they took advantage of the weekend to get ready for tonight. To forget about Friday night

Washington is coming off an upset loss on the road versus an underrated Texas Tech team on Thursday, but the #10 ranked Huskies should now bounce back at home versus an inferior CS Northridge squad as Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar has a 24-10 ATS record in home games following a SU road loss.

The key factors when playing big favorites is motivation and tempo and both factors favor Washington tonight. As mentioned above, the Huskies are coming off their first loss of the season, so they will be focused, plus this is their only game in an eight day span as Washington doesn

Phoenix returns home off a 4-game road trip in which they were embarrassed in their last two games. The Suns lost by 27 points at the Knicks and by 17 points at the Cavaliers. Their offense was horrendous as they scored just 99 and 90 points in those two games while shooting a combined 42.7% (67-157) from the field. Back on their home court tonight, the Suns will bounce back with a strong performance.

The Suns are averaging 119 points on 53.9% shooting on their home floor this season. They are a perfect 6-0 at home, and they

Louisville is extremely thin for this game. The Cardinals will be without three guards tonight as Jerry Smith, Preston Knowles, and Peyton Silva are all out. That means Louisville will be starting sophomore George Goode (first career start), and sophomore Kyle Kuric (first start this season). And that means walk-on guard Chris Brickley will play significant minutes as well tonight.

Chicago hasn

Don

Florida St is in a very difficult scheduling spot for tonight

Tulsa is the best team in Conference-USA. The Golden Hurricane are absolutely loaded with talent and skill, and they return four starters from their 25-win team of a season ago. They are certainly a NCAA tournament team if they stay healthy, but they need to win games against big-name teams like Oklahoma St tonight just in case they fail to earn an automatic tournament berth in their conference tournament.

Their defense is phenomenal. They held teams to just over 60 points per game (34th nationally) last season, and so far they

Toronto is a team in disarray right now. The Raptors have lost four straight, and eight of their last ten games. Their defense has been atrocious as they

Miami is in a funk right now. The Heat have lost five of their last seven games, and things don

North Carolina handled Michigan St pretty easily last year; they won both meetings by scores of 98-63 and 89-72. But there

Wake Forest isn

This is a tough scheduling spot for Memphis. The Grizzlies are playing on a back-to-back set in altitude tonight which is definitely not a good situation for them. Playing in thin air and altitude is always tough, but even tougher when playing without rest. And Memphis has not fared well on the second night of a back-to-back set going just 1-3 ATS this season.

Utah is in good form as they

The best team in the NBA against the worst team in the league, but handicapping the NBA is more about focus and motivation than overall straight-up records. New Jersey is an awful 0-16 SU this season and they are now just one loss shy of tying the NBA's worst start, held by the 1988-89 expansion Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1998-99.

New Jersey might receive an extra spark tonight as they just fired head coach Lawrence Frank this morning and Nets

Butler hasn

William & Mary is playing better than expected this season and they enter with a three-game winning streak with their only losses coming by 9 points at Connecticut and by 2 points in triple-overtime at Harvard. While the results might seem impressive, a closer look inside the numbers reveal that the Tribe has been extremely fortunate from three-point range.

William & Mary is hitting a remarkable 41.4% from beyond the arc and the Tribe just equaled a school record with five consecutive games this season with at least 10+ made three-pointers. Overall, 28 of their 52 shots per game (54%) come from three-point land. William & Mary is dependant on the outside shot because they are not an athletic team and they have no size down low in the post. Both are bad qualities to have against Wake Forest tonight.

The Demon Deacons hold a substantial size edge down low and they also match up well in this game because Wake Forest has an excellent three-point defense that is allowing just 21.5% this season (versus opponents that average 32.5%). Wake is holding teams to just 56.5 points per game and the Demon Deacons have won each game this year by at least 20+ points (20, 31, 23, 24). These recent blowout wins are a good indicator of success tonight and Wake Forest qualifies in a solid 98-57 home favorite momentum this evening.

Play WAKE FOREST (-).

Utah is an extremely young team this season. They lost their three best players from last year

Handicapping the NBA after a holiday break is always a bit tricky as the motivation of teams is often difficult to gauge, however this will not be the case for the Nets as they have plenty of motivation for a win tonight. New Jersey is an awful 0-15 SU this season and they are just two losses shy of tying the NBA's worst start, held by the 1988-89 expansion Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1998-99. If the Nets lose tonight, they will match the franchise-record slide set during the 1977-78 season, so obviously New Jersey has plenty of motivation for a win.

New Jersey will be facing a below .500 Sacramento squad that is also one of the weaker teams in the league. Sacramento just snapped a four-game losing streak and they stand only 1-4 SU in their past five games. Losing teams often letdown after a win and it is hard to imagine Sacramento will be focused for a winless New Jersey squad tonight.

The Nets qualify in a solid 75-40 ATS situation which plays on road underdogs in this price range that have lost 8+ games in a row. New Jersey

Orlando has been one of the best road teams in the NBA over the last couple of seasons. And so far this year, their penchant for winning on the road has continued. The Magic are 5-2 straight-up and against the spread away from home including an outright win at Boston as a 6-point underdog.

The Hawks have played well so far this year, but they may be without their point guard Mike Bibby tonight after he sprained his ankle in their last game. He is a game-time decision and Bibby

The Celtics enter tonight

Last year was a great learning experience for Vanderbilt. They were an extremely young team that had to learn to play together on the fly. And they had to do it for a period of time without their best player, A.J. Ogilvy, who missed a couple of weeks because of injury. The Commodores still were able to go 19-12 on the season, and that experience has them prepared to be much improved this season.

Vanderbilt returns all 5 of their starters, and also return their entire roster from last year, all except one reserve. "We've got some athleticism, Stallings said. "We're not in that position that I've been in other years, where we have to compensate for our lack of athleticism. We can go out and get people and play because we have the speed and quickness and depth to do it. These guys are ready to make a significant jump." Their Hawaii trip did not start off too good with a 67-58 loss to Cincinnati. But they bounced back strong yesterday with a 27-point blowout win over Chaminade and Stallings liked what he saw in the second half. "The last 15 minutes of the game we played very good. That is what we have been looking for since we got here."

Arizona exerted a lot of energy last night as their game against Colorado went into overtime. And they are not a deep team at all as they play just a 7-man rotation. So with this being their third game in three nights, it

Tennessee Chattanooga is in a very difficult scheduling spot for this game tonight. The Mocs played at Richmond on Sunday and lost 75-49, and now with one day of rest must travel to Columbia and take on a much better Missouri team. The poor showing Sunday did not surprise Chattanooga head coach John Shulman. "I'm not shocked about this," he said. "We've got no experience, this was their first road game, and four guys are out. That's a recipe for disaster."

Richmond plays a slow, half-court style which is the exact opposite of Missouri

The Shockers played a disappointing game last night in their 13-point loss to Pittsburgh. It was just a 4-point game in the second half, but Pittsburgh was able to extend their lead late on Wichita St. We expect a much improved effort tonight as the Shockers welcome back their starting point guard Clevin Hannah who was serving a 3-game suspension. His return will ignite this team, and with a pro-Wichita St crowd, there

Syracuse was quite impressive last week in beating California and North Carolina on back-to-back nights at Madison Square Garden. Off those big wins, it

Pittsburgh is not the same team we

Boston is in a terrific spot today to get a convincing win. The Celtics enter this game off a home loss to Orlando on Friday night. They were terrible in that game on offense and defense, and head coach Doc Rivers called his team out in his post-game press conference.

Southern Illinois is one of the best mid-major programs in the country. But last year the Salukis were extremely young and went through growing pains and went just 13-18. That sub-par season has created some tremendous value on the Salukis heading into this season, and that is apparent tonight as this pointspread is simply way too high.

UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing knows Southern Illinois is dangerous.

Last year was a great learning experience for Vanderbilt. They were an extremely young team that had to learn to play together on the fly. And they had to do it for a period of time without their best player, A.J. Ogilvy, who missed a couple of weeks because of injury. The Commodores still were able to go 19-12 on the season, and that experience has them prepared to be much improved this season.

Vanderbilt returns all 5 of their starters, and also return their entire roster from last year, all except one reserve. "There's definitely more of a comfort level," said sophomore Jeffery Taylor. "We've had a whole year of playing against each other and with each other.

The Los Angeles Clippers have been hit hard by injuries so far this season. They lost Blake Griffin before the season opener, Eric Gordon was lost during opening week, Kareem Rush was lost for the season two games ago, and now Marcus Camby is suffering from a lower-back bruise which limited him to just 11 minutes in their last game.

The Clippers have lost 5 of their last 6 games and it appears the adversity is too much for this team to overcome right now. "Nope. No answers," said Baron Davis. "We're not unified. We're not all on the same page. We have to find a way to get in sync and get on the same page. It's tough. Last year, you could blame it on the talent. This year, blame it on the chemistry. It's disheartening." And their defense, rebounding, and turnovers have all been dreadful which is not good when facing the potent Denver offense.

The Nuggets are averaging 105 points per game on 45.3% shooting over their last five games. And their offense welcomes back Anthony Carter to the lineup tonight after he missed time with a strained hip. "I'm ready to roll," Carter said. "Everything is good. I'm playing." Denver has dominated this series as of late winning the last 5 meetings, and with Los Angeles going through some rough times, this looks like another lopsided loss for the Clippers.

Play NUGGETS ( - ).

These two teams match-up nicely for a high-scoring game. In their last two meetings, the Bulls and Lakers had point totals of 216 and 225. And with both teams playing with their full complement of players, tonight