The Los Angeles Lakers have shown that there is considerable future, but Thursday night they face the present, taking on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in a nationally televised 8 p.m. ET showdown (TNT). The Lakers have won two of three as a four-game road trip concludes in Cleveland. The Cavs, however, have won 15 of 16. Before picking either side, you need to read what SportsLine NBA expert Galin Dragiev has to say about it. "The Dragon" is a veteran writer of sites such as Rotoworld and DailyRoto. Dragiev learned early on to predict the outcome of the game before determining how success trickles down to individual players, so he spent more time studying team outcomes than projecting individual players. When it comes to predictions, Galin trusts numbers above all else. When it comes to the Cavs, Dragiev is on target. He's 16-7 in his last 23 picks against the spread involving Cleveland, a red-hot 70-percent winning percentage. Will the Cavs continue their dominating streak, or can the young Lakers hang – at least enough to cover the 9.5-point spread? Dragiev's pick against the spread is in. Join SportsLine now to see which side of Lakers-Cavaliers you should be all over Thursday night, plus get picks from top experts, insiders, and bookmakers of all games from the NFL, NBA and more!