LA Lakers News
The Los Angeles Lakers were the talk of the offseason. Bringing in Steve Nash, Dwight Howard and Metta World Peace to compliment Pao Gasol and Kobe Bryant was supposed to make the Lakers one of the top teams in the league and a Championship threat. In fact the NBA bookies had the Lakers with odds of +250 to win the 2013 NBA Championship, next to only the +210 of the Miami Heat!
Needless to say things haven’t panned out the way many people expected with these 5 starts failing to find any chemistry to this point in the season. The Lakers currently sit in 11th spot in the West with a 15-18 record and are 3.5 games back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
What They Have To Do
Just to make the playoffs the Lakers will likely need almost 50 wins. Let’s say 46 wins gets you into the playoffs in the West, which is what it was in the last full NBA season. That means that the Lakers must go 31-18 in their remaining games just to get that final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Then they would likely have to play the LA Clippers, OKC Thunder or San Antonio Spurs (each of who are battling it out for top spot in the West at the moment). That would make them big dogs heading into the playoffs and they would likely be out in the first round anyways.
To avoid playing these teams in the first round of the playoffs, which would allow them to get some footing under them and some playoff experience before having to take on all of the big dogs they would have to finish the season with about 50 wins (5th place two years ago). That means they would have to go 34-14 from here on out. This is doable, but as you can see they will need to turn it up very soon to reach this plateau and it just doesn’t look like they have figured it out yet.
Current Championship Odds
The odds for the Lakers have lengthened significantly, but for some unknown reason the oddsmakers are still giving the Lakers a very good shot at the Championship. They are currently sitting at +1000 at 5Dimes, which is still the 5th favorite in the league. Pretty generous for a 15-18 team if I do say so.
To find some good NBA picks, head over to NBABettingPredictions.com where Jeff has been picking winners this season. One thing is for sure. Jeff won’t be suggesting that anyone takes the Lakers to win the Championship at this point in the season. They would be lucky to just make the playoffs.
