Bet on the NBA – Lakers Look to Close-Out Series Against Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers appear set to close-out their best of seven 1 st round series against the Oklahoma Thunder on Friday night. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers put to bed any notion that they weren’t still one of the best teams in the NBA by absolutely pummeling the Thunder in L.A. in Game 5 111 to 87 as 6 point basketball betting favorites.

What the Lakers did was rare for this series, run when they had the ball on offense and shutdown the Thunder’s terrific offense through their defense. If L.A. comes close to playing at the level they played at in Game 5, this series will be over tonight.

L.A. is the slight basketball bet underdog in this game.

Los Angeles Lakers +1 -110 O 194 ½ -110
Oklahoma City Thunder -1 -110 U 194 ½ -110

The trends say that the Thunder cover the spread in this game.

• The Los Angeles Lakers are 0 and 7 in their last 7 games following a straight-up win.
• The Los Angeles Lakers are 2 and 6 ATS in their last 8 games vs. the Western Conference.
• The Oklahoma City Thunder is 14 and 3 ATS in their last 17 games as a favorite of ½ to 4 ½ points.
• The Oklahoma City Thunder is 8 and 2 ATS in their last 10 games as a home favorite of ½ to 4 ½ points.

The Phoenix Suns closed out their 1 st round series against the Portland Trailblazers on Thursday night as did the San Antonio Spurs versus the Dallas Mavericks. Will Los Angeles Lakers be the third Western Conference team to closeout a series in the past 2 days?

I believe that they will. Even though the trends point to the Thunder winning this game, the truth is that the Thunder play worse at home than they do on the road. To me, that’s a big sign that Oklahoma City will implode, in one way or another, in tonight’s game.

Kevin Durant, whom the Lakers held to only 17 points in Game 5, may end up putting up closer to 30, like he usually does, but it most likely won’t be enough.

L.A. held the Thunder to 36.9% from the field in Game 5. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum each scored over 20 points to show that they could dominate Oklahoma City’s inside game. The biggest problem, of course, is that L.A. took the young Oklahoma City Thunder back down to earth and showed them they aren’t quite there yet.

There is where the L.A. Lakers are, ready to march into the 2 nd round and take on the winner of the Utah vs. Denver series.

L.A. will win this game tonight. Oklahoma City will play better than they did in Game 5 but there will be a moment where the Thunder will have to do something that they’ve never had to do, make a playoff type play, and the Lakers will stop them from doing that.

After that play, expect L.A. to pull away. I say the Lakers win by around 5 to 8 points to easily cover the 1-point spread.

Pick: L.A. Lakers +1