Tip-off: Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Indiana -6, Total: 199

The Lakers look to extend their winning streak to four games when they wrap up a road trip with a visit to the slumping Pacers, losers of eight straight, on Monday night.

Los Angeles has certainly had a rocky season thus far, but the last week has been great with while the team has rattled off three consecutive SU victories (2-0-1 ATS). The club continued its season-best run when it traveled to Minnesota in the second of three straight road contests on Sunday night as 3.5-point favorites and left with a 100-94 win. The game was highlighted by Kobe Bryant passing Michael Jordan for third on the NBA's all-time scoring list. It has certainly not been the Lakers' offensive efficiency that is getting these wins, as they’ve shot 42% FG or worse twice in the three victories. The big difference of late is elite ball security, with a mere 10 turnovers per game, while they also took 14 more shots at the line than the Timberwolves in Sunday’s victory. Indiana has been playing some horrid basketball of late and brings an eight-game SU losing skid (2-6 ATS) into this one, losing these contests by an average of 10.1 PPG. The Pacers have shot below 40% FG in five of those contests and did so once again in their most recent defeat to Portland on Saturday when they made only 34-of-88 FG (38.6%) in a 95-85 home loss as 5-point underdogs. L.A. has actually been very solid as a road team this season, going 5-7 SU (7-5 ATS) so far on the season, while Indiana is a mere 4-8 SU (3-8-1 ATS) when playing at home. The Pacers were a much better team last season when they went 2-0 (both SU and ATS) in the season series while beating the Lakers by an average of 16.0 PPG. Overall in the past three seasons, the Indiana is 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in this series while holding Los Angeles under 44% shooting each time. Some trends to keep an eye on for Monday include that the Lakers are 19-4 ATS (83%) in the past two seasons versus poor passing teams that collect fewer than 20.0 APG, but they are also just 62-88 ATS (41%) since 1996 when facing a strong rebounding team with +3.0 RPG margin or better. The injury report continues to have SF Xavier Henry (Achilles) and PF Ryan Kelly (hamstring) out indefinitely for L.A., while Indiana is still missing both PG George Hill (quad) and C Ian Mahinmi (foot), while SG C.J. Miles (knee) is listed as questionable for Monday.

Can the Pacers snap their long losing skid versus a red-hot Lakers team? For the answer, connect to The Platinum Sheet for all the Expert picks throughout the entire 2014-15 season. While StatFox Forecaster has a stellar 61% ATS record (68-43) in featured games this season, the five experts have also caught fire with a collective 71% ATS mark (41-17) in NBA Best Bets since Nov. 29. StatFox Brian is 12-1 ATS during this timeframe to give him a 63% ATS record (22-13) in NBA Best Bets this season, while StatFox Gary is 10-2 ATS since Nov. 29 to improve to 63% ATS (22-13) in NBA Best Bets this season. Also during this surge, StatFox Dave is 8-3 ATS and StatFox Scott is 7-5 ATS.

The Lakers’ offense has been fairly solid this season with 102.6 PPG (T-9th in league) behind a low 44% combined shooting from the field (9th-worst in NBA). Meanwhile, their defense has been very poor as they are allowing a league-worst 109.5 PPG while letting opponents make 47.8% FG (3rd-worst in NBA) and 38.6% threes (3rd-worst in league). SG Kobe Bryant (25.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.4 SPG) passed another milestone on Sunday night and is putting together a great season at the age of 36 while averaging 26.7 PPG over the team’s past three wins. In his 30 career games (27 starts) against the Pacers, he has amassed 25.6 PPG (43.2% FG) with 5.2 RPG, 4.2 APG and 1.6 SPG. PF Carlos Boozer (13.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG) has been one of the main factors in the team's recent tear with 18.0 PPG with 13.0 RPG in the past two games. Over his 29 career meetings (27 starts) with Indiana, Boozer has netted 14.6 PPG (49% FG) while grabbing 8.1 RPG. C Jordan Hill (13.1 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.0 BPG) had a big start to the 2014-15 campaign, but has really slowed down with only 10.8 PPG with 6.0 RPG over his past five contests. He came off the bench in the two games against the Pacers last season and scored 6.0 PPG (50% FG), while grabbing 7.5 RPG.

The loss of Paul George this season has put this Pacers offense in disarray and they have scored a meager 93.2 PPG (2nd-worst in league) behind 42.2% shooting (3rd-worst in NBA). On the other hand, they have continued to be a strong defensive unit, giving up 97.4 PPG (9th in league) on 45.5% FG (18th in NBA) and 34.4% threes (10th in league). C Roy Hibbert (11.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.2 BPG) has fallen off recently with a mere 7.4 PPG (38% FG), 5.4 RPG and 1.0 BPG over his past five games. He’s faced the Lakers 11 times (9 starts) in his career, averaging 12.4 PPG (52% FG), 6.5 RPG and 1.4 BPG. PG Rodney Stuckey (12.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG) has been getting extended time with all the team's injuries and is coming off a huge game (14 points, 14 assists) in the loss to Portland on Saturday. He’s been able to go for 11.9 PPG (43% FG) and 1.3 SPG over 12 career meetings (7 starts) against Los Angeles. PF David West (11.7 PPG, 5.8 RPG) has had a tough time returning from injury and has averaged only 10.0 PPG with 5.2 RPG over his past five performances. He’ll attempt to get things back on track against a Lakers team who he has scored 16.0 PPG (46% FG) against, while grabbing 8.3 RPG over 27 career games (25 starts).