NBA Playoff Betting: LA Lakers Need A Win Over Dallas, Badly
Friday, May 06, 2011
by BetUS.com
Anyone engaged in NBA Playoff Betting knows that when a team has gone down 2-0 and then has to go on the road in the playoffs, they need a win - badly - and that is the situation facing the Los Angeles Lakers as they line up against the Dallas Mavericks for Game 3 at the American Airlines Center.
If Dallas wins on Friday night, that pretty much puts an end to the Lakers' hopes of a "three-peat," and the Mavs are laying 2.5 points in the game.
NBA Betting
- Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks
West Playoffs - Game 3
(Mavs lead 2-0)
Live at American Airlines Center
Dallas, TX
Friday, May 6 -- 9:30 PM ET
NBA Playoff Betting Odds:
Dallas -2.5
L.A. Lakers +2.5
Total 185.5
Yes, it is panic time for the Lakers. They are down 2-0 in the series and they have not provided any value in NBA betting either, dropping eleven of their last 15 against the number. I think that when you don't come into the post-season with a full head of steam, and then got shocked in the first game of your first series against New Orleans, you need to rebound a little stronger than this team did. Let's face it - the wakeup call isn't THIS game, it was the game before it, when they had a chance to even up the series at home. I don't know that we should expect the Lakers to make a big comeback any more than we should have expected San Antonio to do it against Memphis.
The question of Dirk Nowitzki and who is going to defend him has to come up, if Los Angeles is going to have any chance in the NBA Playoff Betting odds. Not that he's run wild, but he's been a very effective 20-for-38 from the field, although he is not a good offensive rebounder at all (only 50 in the regular season, seven in the playoffs). Between Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, I think one of them is too big and the other too small to get it done. And you saw the Lakers putting up a lot of three-pointers, even though they weren't falling. Maybe they'll have more luck with that in game 3.
And we would never doubt their ability to win on the road. But they are almost going to have to do this to cover the number in NBA betting. Should we trust them to do that? I didn't particularly like their minus-33 figure from the bench. Maybe Ron Artest would have been pesky enough to bother Nowitzki out there, in which case they could have continued to go "big" with Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but Artest got the suspension, so that hurts the Lakers all the way down the line.
We could go into a long diatribe about how the Lakers are the defending champs, and they have their backs to the wall, and on and on and on. Certainly it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to come back and win one after losing the first two. They certainly aren't catching many points from the linemaker. But there's a reality here, which is that Dallas, which has been a streaky team this year, has won six in a row at home, ten of its last 12 overall, and has gone a sizzling 11-0-1 ATS over the last twelve in NBA Playoff Betting. And we're going to ride that for the moment.
BetUS Sportsbook JAY'S PLAY: DALLAS -2.5 **
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)
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Tags
american airlines center - andrew bynum - dallas mavericks - dirk nowitzki - lamar odom - los angeles lakers - nba playoff betting - pau gasol - ron artest