Los Angeles Lakers @ Boston Celtics NBA Free Pick & Preview

Los Angeles Lakers @ Boston Celtics NBA Free Pick & Preview: Any time the Lakers and Celtics go toe to toe, there’s something more than a basketball game on the line. This game is always bigger than a normal game, which is a good thing at this point of the NBA season. If it’s because these two teams are the most winning teams in the history of the sport, that’s great. If it’s because these two teams grew into their own being the opposite of each other, that’s cool too. The bottom line is, it’s BIG.

The Lakers have been bad against their biggest opponents in the biggest moments, at least so far this regular season (arguably, when the playoffs come around, they’re pretty good in important games – at least the last couple years). The Celtics have been the better team this season, and they are getting healthy with Kendrick Perkins getting back in the line-up. With Bynum also healthy, this should be a big time battle in Boston.

In the Finals last season, the Lakers were down big but came back to oust the Celtics in game 7 and take the Championship Trophy home for the summer.

But like I said, this season has been a little different for the Lakers. Anyone can see a regular season lull now and again, especially against the lower echelon teams – but the Lakers are struggling against the best. Recently they’ve lost games to San Antonio, Boston, and Dallas. They also lost to Miami on Christmas, and San Antonio blew them out on National TV a few days later. The best have beaten the Lakers, and heading to Boston is now surefire way to fix that problem.

The Celtics are 38-13 but have lost 4 of their last 9 games, falling to the likes of Washington, Phoenix, Dallas and Charlotte. They’re losing to bad teams (and Dallas). The beat LA in LA 10 days ago, and I think it happens again in Boston. I’ll take the Celtics to step up and play big against their biggest rival.

LA Lakers @ Boston Celtics (-2.5) (TNT) (2/10)