Betting the Lakers to Make the Playoffs

The Lakers bubbled the playoffs last season with a 33-49 record. They 안전놀이터 finished in 11th place in the Western Conference after the San Antonio Spurs made a big push in the final weeks of the season to finish in tenth place. The Spurs beat the Lakers to the last spot in the 2022 Western Conference Play-In Tournament.

According to a postseason prop bet from DraftKings, the Lakers are +160 odds to make the playoffs this season, and -200 odds to miss the playoffs.

The Lakers currently have a season-ending win total of 40.5 over/under wins. They would have to win 14 out of their final 23 games to reach 41 wins and finish the season at exactly .500.

FiveThirtyEight projects the Lakers will finish the regular season with a 40-42 record. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Lakers have a 33% chance to qualify for the postseason, but only a 2% chance to win the championship.

The Lakers are +4000 odds to win the 2022-23 NBA championship, but only saw a slight bump at DraftKings after the trade deadline.

In Western Conference futures, the Lakers are +2000 odds to win the conference for a second time since the 2019-20 season.

The Lakers find themselves in last place in the Pacific Division, and trail the first-place Sacramento Kings (32-25) by six games. It’s overall a tight divisional race, with 1.5 games separating the surprise Kings, Los Angeles Clippers (33-28), and Phoenix Suns (32-28).

The Suns are the betting favorite to win the Pacific Division at -145 odds, followed by the Clippers (+240), and Kings (+475). The Golden State Warriors (+2800) and Lakers (+6000) are long shots to win their division.

LeBron: “Most Important Games of My Career”

Since LeBron James joined the Lakers in 2018-19, they won one NBA championship, but missed the postseason twice.

During his first season in L.A., the Lakers finished in tenth place in the Western Conference with a 37-45 record. The pandemic struck in the middle of James’ second season with the Lakers (52-19), but they got hot in the players-only NBA Bubble in Orlando and won the 2019-20 NBA championship.

The Lakers failed to defend their title in the 72-game, shortened season in 2020-21. They finished in seventh place overall with a 42-30 record, but were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round after losing Anthony Davis to an injury.

The Lakers face an uphill battle in their final 23 games this season if they want to avoid missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons.