Play: LA Lakers
Rating: 8*

The San Antonio Spurs will visit the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night. The Spurs have won four on the bounce, but they've failed to cover the spread in each of their last two games, winning 94-90 as an 11-point favorite against Miami and 110-105 as an 5.5-point favorite at Sacramento.

Los Angeles is not a team on the Spurs' radar, and they have no motivation to do much more than just enough to get the W here. A win might not come that easy though against a Lakers team that has played above and beyond all expectations so far, and I expect the Lakers players to step up big here against a big name opponent. Keep in mind that this is Lakers team handed Golden State a 20-point defeat earlier this month.

A 7-5 straight up record while going 8-3-1 against the spread is extremely impressive by the Lakers standard, and first year head coach Luke Walton has this young team believing. He knows how build a winning mentality from his time as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, and point guard D'Angelo Russell and power forward Julius Randle have both made the most of the responsibility given them.

Defeating San Antonio straight up will be tricky as Pop usually finds a way to grind out a win, but I expect the Lakers to cover the spread.