Lakers poised to make NBA title run, deal blow to books
The Lakers got off to an awful 2-10 start this season. But they finished by winning nine of their last 11 games and are suddenly one of the favorites to win the NBA title.
Los Angeles, a 7½-point home favorite over Minnesota in Tuesday’s NBA play-in game, is the 12-1 sixth choice at the Westgate SuperBook to win it all behind Milwaukee (3-1), Boston (+350), Phoenix (5-1), Golden State (8-1) and Denver (9-1).
“It’s going to be interesting because their chances could be greatly enhanced by winning this game,” SuperBook NBA oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said. “It would get them to the better side of the Western Conference bracket. That would put them in the Memphis bracket and potentially against the Golden State-Sacramento winner.
“If they lost and won the next game, they’d play Denver in the first round and Phoenix in the second round.”
A loss by the Lakers — who went 30-19 down the stretch to finish 43-39 — would pit them against the winner of Wednesday’s Thunder-Pelicans play-in game on Friday and would result in higher odds to win it all.
“A lot of that has to do with our accrued liability during the course of the season,” Sherman said. “They’re a mid six-figure loss for us right now.”
The seventh-seeded Lakers opened -6½ over the No. 8 Timberwolves on Sunday. But the line went up a point Monday when Minnesota suspended center Rudy Gobert for the game after he threw a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout in Sunday’s win over New Orleans.
The total also shot up from 229 to 231½.
“Minnesota doesn’t have that rim protection and interior defense without Gobert,” Sherman said.
The Lakers have gone over in eight straight games.
Series prices
The defending NBA champion Warriors are the sixth seed, but they’re heavy -275 favorites over the No. 3 Kings (+235) to win their first-round playoff series after the line opened at -240.
“We’ve taken a couple sharp bets on Golden State, which has driven the price up to -275,” Sherman said. “I’m sure, from their perspective, they’re just fading Sacramento. Who knows if they’re just happy to be in the playoffs after all these years of missing it.
“I think the Kings are going to give these guys a run. They have enough offensive production to do it. They’re favored by 1 in the first game. I think it will be a tough series for Golden State.”
In the other first-round series, which start Saturday, the 76ers are -900 favorites over the Nets (+600), the Suns are -500 over the Clippers (+400) and the Cavaliers are -215 over the Knicks (+185).
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
