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While it may not seem real yet, it is: The Los Angeles Lakers will play the Denver Nuggets, not the LA Clippers, in the Western Conference Finals, which begin Friday.
The Lakers won their regular-season series with the Nuggets 3-1, and their only loss came on a night when LeBron James was sidelined with a muscle strain. The Lakers lost 128-104.
The Nuggets may be on a different level than they were in the regular season, but bettors still favor the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Lakers are betting favorites to win the series at -625. The Nuggets line is +450.
That’s a stark contrast to the betting lines in the east. The Boston Celtics line is set at +132 and the Miami Heat line is set at -162. The Heat won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday.
The Lakers are also win-it-all betting favorites, with a -200 betting line. The Heat have the next best betting line (+400), followed by the Celtics (+400) and finally the Nuggets (+900).
However, not all models make the Lakers go far. On Tuesday, FiveThirtyEight updated its 2019-20 NBA predictions, which are based on RAPTOR player ratings, and the Lakers have the third best chance of winning the Finals (16%) behind the Celtics (43%) and the Heat (29%). ). The Nuggets have the lowest probability at 12%, which is only 4% worse than the Lakers.
That’s not to say the Lakers are still being doubted, but if anyone on the team needs an arbitrary reason to have a chip on their shoulder before the home stretch of the playoff race, they could start there.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @RadRivas.
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