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Best Ways to Bet & Fade the Lakers for Remainder of NBA Season

Chris Sheridan

by Chris Sheridan in NBA Basketball

Updated May 6, 2021 · 7:31 AM PDT

LeBron James
What are the best ways to bet on the Lakers for the rest of the season? (Photo by PI/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire)
  • Will the Lakers be good tonight or in the playoffs? Or do they stink as much as they’ve shown lately?
  • Despite injuries and recent slide, LeBron James’ team remains favored to win the Western Conference.
  • If you agree or disagree on their “eventual success,” different wagering strategies are available. They are explained in the article below

The Lakers are grumpy to the point of being miserable, and they are falling in the standings. They are borderline terrible, except when they are not.  Like against Denver on Monday night.

But generally, LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been too banged to to develop any chemistry or positive energy throughout the most recent three months of the NBA season,  and if they lose to Portland on Friday night the Blazers will have the tiebreaker.

That could almost ensure that the Lakers are destined for the play-in tournament, where consecutive losses would keep them out of the postseason. and if you think that is realistic, you can wager it at +1000  at DraftKings Sportsbook. The books define playoffs as the final 16 teams.

And there are legitimate doubts about whether the Lakers will turn things around.

So if you want to fade them; or if you want to take the opposite tack and wager that LeBron will be back in the finals for the  10th time in 11 years, we have picked out some wagers.

Lakers vs Clippers Odds

Game Spread Over/Under
Lakers vs. Clippers Lakers +6.5 222.5

All odds from PointsBet as of May 6th

First things first, which is tonight’s  game against the Clippers. James is expected to be sidelined, and he is reportedly out for Friday night’s game, too.

The Lakers have gone 2-6 against the spread in their last eight games, covering Monday with their surprising win against Denver and on April 26 when they defeated Orlando by 11 when favored by 10.5 points.  (The Magic held the ball for the final 16 seconds and did not attempt a shot).

If form holds, they lose by at least eight and go under, which has happened in three of their last four games.

The over/under is the third-highest that has been posted for a Lakers game in their last 12, which is likely a product of the Clippers and Lakers averaging a combined 223.6 combined points in their respective games. The Lakers are 26-38-1 on over/unders, and the Clippers are 36-30-0 against the spread.

So that data was for the Lakers Haters out there, along with Clippers Nation.

2021 NBA Finals Exact Matchup Odds

Exact NBA Finals Matchup Odds
Lakers vs. Nets +500
Lakers vs. Sixers +1400

Will the Lakers Come Out of the West?

Look, this team did add Andre Drummond and will be scary good at full strength if that ever happens. Davis has missed almost half the season with a leg injury, and James is out again according to Woj for precautionary reasons after he missed six weeks with a high ankle sprain.

James does tend to save his best for the postseason, and there has not been an NBA player that has made such a steady progression to the finals since Bill Russell was leading the dominant Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s.

Under that line of thinking, whatever happened in the regular season was meaningless, and the Lakers will turn it on when they need to. That seems to be the thinking of the sportsbooks, who still have the Lakers as the No. 2 championship contender behind the Brooklyn Nets.

Both teams, if they ever get back to full strength, are loaded with enough talent to make it through their respective conferences and give us a bi-coastal finals. And if it is not Brooklyn coming out, the East’s best team is the Sixers (45-21), and a +1400 wager on that latter exact matchup does not seem like the craziest idea in the history of ideas.

 

Lakers Finals Odds vs Eastern Conference Longshots

Exact NBA Finals Matchup Odds
Lakers vs, Atlanta Hawks +12500
Lakers vs. New York Knicks +12500

Could the Lakers Face a Cinderella?

A bunch of big East finalist and NBA champion wagers have been coming in on the Atlanta Hawks, who had one of their most quality victories of the season last night in defeating the West-leading Phoenix Suns 135-103, getting 74 bench points from their very deep roster.

The Hawks are seven games over .500 and have quality victories over the Blazers and Suns in their two most recent games. They have five games left, all against bad opponents, and have a strong chance of finishing with the No. 4 seed. They are only a half-game behind the Knicks, who are on a six-game road trip on which their next three games are against the Suns, Lakers and Clippers.

Atlanta would benefit most from Boston moving up to No. 5, setting up an first-round series against a team they went 2-1 against. (they were 0-3 vs. New York).

Go New York, Go New York, Go?

That was the Knicks in-arena chant back when they were good, which most folks are too young to remember.

But Tom Thibodeau is one of the top Coach of the Year candidates, Julius Randle could get both All-NBA first team and Most Improved Player, and Derrick Rose has a history of success leading Thibs’ offense. The Knicks are also a highly-skilled defensive team, and while it is difficult to envision them winning three series, New York could benefit most by one of the top three teams getting upset in the first round, making their second-round series easier.

The three road games in Phoenix and Los Angeles will be fallowed by three home games to conclude the season against sputtering San Antonio, then Charlotte and Boston on the final weekend of the season.

New York is 12-2 since April 9, and what a team looks like heading into the playoffs is far more important than what it looked like in February, March or April.

LBJ @ MSG in July? Would not be the strangest thing ever.

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