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As we near the midpoint of the NBA regular season, injuries are playing a major role for most teams. This is the case tonight as both TNT national TV games have key players missing.

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The Knicks will likely be without point guard Stephon Marbury for the second straight night, while the Kings could possibly be without three of their top four scorers. While injuries are important, their effect on the pointspread is often overrated as both the Knicks and Kings covered the spread in their past games, despite playing short-handed.

Below is a look at both national TV games this evening.

DETROIT at NEW YORK - 8:05 pm ET (TNT)

The Pistons were one win away from winning back-to-back NBA championships last season and they appear to be the team to beat this year. Detroit improved to 31-5 SU with an easy 117-89 win at Atlanta last night. The Pistons were able to rest their starters as they entered the fourth quarter with a 22-point lead.

Detroit already beat New York at home, 106-98, as an 11 ½-point favorite on December 2nd. The game was tied 59-59 at halftime and then the Pistons dominated the third quarter, 24-8, to take a 16-point lead heading into the final period. Overall, the Pistons outshot the Knicks 54-45 percent from the field.

The Pistons leading scorer that night was Richard Hamilton who poured in 40 points, while the Knicks were led by Jamal Crawford (22 points) and Channing Frye (21 points). Stephon Marbury scored only 11 points, but he did lead the team with 11 assists.

Marbury missed his first game in five years when a shoulder injury kept him out of last night's game at Chicago. The Knicks lost 106-104 in overtime and now must travel home without rest. Marbury is expected to be out again tonight and leads the Knicks in scoring (18.9 ppg), assists (7.0 apg), and steals (1.3 spg).

L.A. LAKERS at SACRAMENTO - 10:35 pm ET (TNT)

The Lakers are playing excellent basketball and have gone 6-1 SU (5-2 ATS) the past seven games since Kobe Bryant returned from a two-game suspension. Los Angeles enters tonight's game off back-to-back SU dog wins after a 110-104 upset at Golden State and then a 100-92 home win versus Miami on Monday. The Lakers won both games outright as 3-point underdogs.

The Sacramento Kings played without three of their top four scorers on Tuesday, but still managed to upset the Phoenix Suns, 119-90, as an 8-point home underdog. Sacramento outshot the Suns 51-38 percent overall and led by as many as 33 points in the game.

It was the second straight home win for the Kings who improved to 11-11 SU at Arco Arena this season. Leading scorer Mike Bibby was questionable heading into the game, but played 34 minutes and scored 19 points with five assists. The Kings were without their other three top scorers as Peja Stojakovic (16.6 ppg), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (16.5 ppg), and Bonzi Wells (15.1 ppg) were all out with injuries. Stojakovic is questionable tonight, while both Abdur-Rahim and Wells are doubtful.

STEVE MERRIL is a professional sports handicapper and a documented member of The Professional Handicappers League. Get his Premium plays here.

The current Western Conference champions LA Lakers, lost for second consecutive time at Florida on Saturday night against the Orlando Magic 106-103. Both teams were playing at their best but at the end, two free throws of Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant missing the three point shot at the buzzer, gave the Magic the victory.

The game was equally played, in the first two quarters the Lakers in hands of its super star Kobe were having a lead of 9 points at halftime. However, Magic came stronger not giving Kobe a chance to score and also scoring 6 three-pointers to come back in the game.

At the end of the third quarter Orlando got a lead of 1 point, 85-84. In the fourth quarter, things got equally again for both teams, each one taking the lead in different times. However, we have to mention that at the end the Lakers got short by having Kobe shooting 1-for-7 and not having anyone else to shot consistently for them. On the other hand, Orlando did have Howard and Jameer Nelson shooting consistently and at the end Howard wrapped the victory by making the last two free throws.

The best shooters for the Lakers were Kobe Bryant with 41 points, Fisher with 27 points and Gasol with 11 points. Bynum was not at his best on this game and didn't contribute to the Lakers as he usually does. For the Magic, Nelson added 27 points, Lewis 22 points, Howard contributed 샌즈카지노 with 18 points and 12 rebounds and Turkoglu added 14 points.

So, the difference in the game was that four of the Orlando's starters scored double digits and for the Lakers only two players were consistent on their shooting. Gasol did his part on defense but didn't score that many points. Phil Jackson was very upset with the lost especially being their second consecutive one and criticized his players for their decision making in the last two quarters by looking for Kobe to much even when he was strongly guarded sometimes by two Orlando players.

"I was yelling at the guys, they kept giving the ball back to Kobe after he'd hit somebody in an open situation. He was dead-legged out there and really gave us a great effort for three quarters, but that fourth quarter, he was tired," expressed Coach Phil Jackson.

With this lost the Lakers are now 21-5 and the Orlando Magic are 21-6. The next games of the Lakers will be on Monday against Memphis, Tuesday against New Orleans and one of the most exciting games will be on Thursday against the current champions and leader of the NBA the Boston Celtics. This game is one of the most awaited games for the NBA fans due to the fact that they are both at the first place at their respective conferences.

Orlando for its part will play against Golden State on Monday, then New Orleans on Thursday and Minnesota on Saturday.

We hope to see great basketball these holidays at the NBA and hope the Lakers will find their way to win these three games, even try to end the Celtics' winning streak, and not burn out before this year ends. On the other hand, we hope the best for Orlando Magic, which are having a great season this year and are trying to demonstrate they can be a threat in the East.