NBA Playoffs: The Time to Bet the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA Championship Is Now

After a rollercoaster year that has been headlined by early season chemistry issues among teammates, marquee injuries, big name trades, fights and feuds involving help from a certain former NFL tight end, as well as an all-time scoring record, against all odds the seventh-seed Los Angeles Lakers hold a first round series lead and the momentum over the second-seed Memphis Grizzlies.  Now, with a commanding 3-1 advantage, we’re finally willing to admit it: the time to bet the Lakers for the NBA championship is now, according to our NBA predictive futures model.

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LA Lakers Making an NBA Playoffs Charge

There’s been nothing conventional about the Lakers this season. After a dismal 2021-22 campaign where they were pre-season title betting favorites but missed playoffs, LeBron James and his team headed into the new year with minimal expectations among the fans, media and sportsbooks, listed at +7000 to win the title. The lack of hype around this team was matched with an awful 2-10 start as questions around the fit of the ‘Big Three’ of LeBron, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook continued to ring louder.

But after some shrewd moves from general manager Rob Pelinka at the trade deadline where Westbrook was moved on and the likes of D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura brought in, the Lakers have rallied, correcting course to book themselves a playoff berth via a play-in victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now, currently leading their first round series in what has become a spiteful affair against the Memphis Grizzlies, our predictive analytics model has identified some major value on the Lakers to continue their run all the way to the NBA Finals.

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How to Bet the Lakers for the NBA Championship

Listed with FanDuel Sportsbook at +1900 to win title No. 18, our model believes those odds are major value that you should be betting on right now.

After 10,000 simulations of the NBA season from this point onwards, our predictor gives Los Angeles a 7% chance of winning the NBA championship, equating to implied odds of +1329.

Assuming the Lakers make it past the Grizzlies in the first round, the 2020 champions will like their chances in the Western Conference semifinals where a meeting with the winner of the Golden State Warriors/Sacramento Kings series awaits. 

With two of our model’s top four fancies come from the Eastern Conference - the Celtics (29.7% chance to win the title) and the 76ers (16.1%), we’ve also identified some value on the Lakers to come out of the west at a 19.1% chance (implied odds of +533), compared with the current best odds available with FanDuel of +550.

There’s still a long way to go in these playoffs, but the Lakers are headed in the right direction.

NBA Championship Futures Probabilities and Odds