After coming from behind to defeat the Boston Celtics in dramatic fashion Sunday afternoon, the Lakers concluded a season-long eight-game road trip with a surprising loss at Memphis the following night. They finally return home to Staples Center Wednesday night where they’ll host a Charlotte Bobcats team that, believe it or not, has given them plenty of pointspread problems in recent seasons.

Charlotte is 8-2 ATS all-time vs. Los Angeles and last year’s two results were just plain shocking. The Bobcats won both meetings, including 117-110 as 11-point underdogs here in LA. Two months later, they would go on to defeat the Lakers at home 94-84 as 5.5-point pups.

Looking back further, the results continue to surprise. Charlotte has actually won three straight in this series, having won two in a row in Los Angeles. In March of 2008, they won outright by 13 points as 13-point underdogs. We were just stunned to find out that the Bobcats have beaten the Lakers outright six of the last seven meetings overall!

Under Larry Brown, Charlotte has become a player in an albeit weak Eastern Conference this season. They rank amongst the league’s best defensive clubs with Boston and Cleveland, yielding just 93.9 points per game, and are over .500 this late in the season for the first time in franchise history. The Bobcats have also been very profitable at the betting window, going 28-19 ATS.

In other words, don’t expect the Lakers to take this game lightly even though they are currently favored by nine points at BetUS Sportsbook.

Kobe Bryant and company have won seven straight home games, but as alluded to above have lost three in a row here to Charlotte. Kobe is certainly not to blame as he is averaging 34.1 PPG in nine career games in this head to head series.

Charlotte is concluding a long-road trip of its own here. They are 3-2 SU/ATS so far, but coming off a blowout loss in Portland Monday night, losing by 19, the team’s most lopsided defeat since losing 104-85 in San Antonio on December 11th.

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