The Los Angeles Lakers have dropped seven of their last 10 games to fall into the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, but that’s not stopping one bettor from trusting them to win the NBA Finals.
LOn Tuesday night, a bettor at BetMGM Sportsbook placed $100K on Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the Lakers to win the Finals at +1000 odds. Because of the massive bet, BetMGM has moved the Lakers from +1000 to +700 to win the title even though they fell behind the Memphis Grizzlies in the standings on Tuesday.
The Lakers certainly have a higher ceiling with Doncic in the fold — he led Dallas to the NBA Finals last season — but there are still some holes on the roster, specifically in the frontcourt. Los Angeles’ recent down stretch came with James out of the lineup with a groin injury, and the team is 0-2 since he returned to the lineup heading into tonight’s matchup with the Indiana Pacers.
There is an interesting trend in the NBA that the Lakers currently don’t fit the bill for — but it’s possible they could be the first team to buck the trend because they made such a massive trade for Doncic in the middle of the season.
Since the 1996-97 season, every team that has gone on to win the NBA Finals finished in the top 8 in net rating during the regular season. Right now, Los Angeles is outside of that group, sitting in 14th.
The Western Conference is loaded, so there won’t be any real easy matchups in the first round of the playoffs and on — even though teams may look at the Memphis Grizzlies and the young Houston Rockets as more favorable draws to open the postseason.
James has been a part of plenty of teams that have made the Finals, and this bettor seems to think he has one last run in him. It’ll be interesting to see how the Lakers close out the regular season and where there odds are when the playoffs begin.
