Lakers News: Healthy Los Angeles Has Higher Title Odds Than Hurting Grizzlies
Your 43-39 Los Angeles Lakers, the Western Conference's seventh seed, and the 48-34 Sacramento Kings, the West's third seed, could be the priciest playoff contenders for Vegas oddsmakers, per David Purdum of ESPN.
"The Lakers are our biggest outright liability for the Western Conference and for the championship," PointsBet's head of trading, Kevin Lawler, told Purdum. "They went off at 12-1 at the start of the season, drifted as far as 125-1 in November."
In an interesting quirk, although the 51-31 Memphis Grizzlies, LA's opposition in the first round of the West playoffs, are listed as having a slight edge in their series, Los Angeles currently has better championship odds overall (+1400) than Memphis (+1800).
After taking care of business against the Minnesota Timberwolves in its 7-8 play-in game on Tuesday, LA will still be an underdog in its 2-7 matchup with the Grizz.
There's a good reason Memphis' title odds are long. The team will be without starting center Steven Adams and key reserve power forward/center Brandon Clarke, two of its most critical defensive figures, for the duration of the 2023 postseason.
Although Memphis on paper could still beat a Lakers team that struggled to contain Minnesota defensively for much of the night, expecting the club to survive against much healthier teams like the Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns and even the Sacramento Kings is a tough pill to swallow.
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