The Lakers have been a good matchup for opposing forwards, which should help Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg clear this prop total. Flagg is coming off a 21-point performance vs. Golden State. He easily led the team with 18 shots, as the Mavs lack pure scorers in their starting lineup.

FanDuel. Cooper Flagg has cleared this points line in 13 of his last 18 full games against teams in the bottom 12 of defensive rating. The Lakers rank 25th, and should struggle to contain the dynamic rookie. In a primetime spot against the Lakers and Luka, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Mavs looked to showcase their rookie.

Cooper Flagg was supposed to be limited to around 25 minutes when he faced the Warriors on Thursday. He ended up logging 30 minutes, posting 11 rebounds and 2 assists along the way. He has recorded at least 10 combined rebounds and assists in both games since returning from injury. Over his last 18 total games, he combined for at least 10 rebounds and assists 15 times. The last time he faced the Lakers, he had seven rebounds and 11 assists over 36 minutes. I think he plays around 30 minutes Saturday, leaving him in a good spot to hit this over.

I expect LeBron James to largely play facilitator/rebounder tonight to allow Luka Doncic to go bananas offensively in his second game back in Dallas since truly the worst trade in sports history -- if any American company hires former Mavs GM Nico Harrison, it deserves to go bankrupt. What a doofus (but I blame the owner more as he could have said no). I certainly looked at Luka's point total tonight but I just can't go Over a 33.5 number (our model has 31.9). So we'll do this instead. The model has LeBron at 14.1 RA.