LeBron James First Round Underdog for the First Time in NBA History: Can the Lakers Pull Off the Upset – DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG)
nba superstar Lebron James Has won four NBA championships in his career, earning them on three teams during his career. In order to capture a fifth NBA championship in the 2023 NBA playoffs, James will need to achieve a new feat for the first time in his career.
What happened: The 2022-2023 NBA season has been one of ups and downs for James. The NBA star missed a few games due to injury, playing in 55 games, the second lowest total of his career. During the season, James became the all-time career NBA scoring leader, a feat that would likely last for many years.
The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in the NBA Playoffs as the 7th seed in the Western Conference against the 2nd seed Memphis Grizzlies, coming after or as a result of. winning the play-in tournament to make the playoffs.
To begin the NBA Playoffs, the Grizzlies were favored to win the series at odds of -130, compared to odds of +110 for the Lakers.
This marked the first time that James found himself in the first round of the NBA Playoffs as an underdog.
James has a strong first-round record of 14-1 overall, suffering his only first-round loss in the 2020-2021 season, his last in the NBA playoffs since the Lakers skipped the postseason last season. The Lakers were the 7th seed in that playoff run and found themselves favored by the 2nd seeded Phoenix Suns.
Counting the first round and the rest of the NBA Playoffs, James has found himself the underdog in the series a total of 11 times in his 20 seasons. As a betting underdog in the last 10 series with James, James has a 4–6 record, including a 2–2 record as an underdog in the NBA Finals. According For Action Network.
The good news for James and Lakers fans – or bettors backing him – is that the Lakers won their first game in the series against the Grizzlies and have now turned the tables on the betting odds.
The Lakers’ Odds To Win The Series At +110 Were Actually The Third Best In NBA Playoff History ESPN,
James posted a 3–14 record in Game 1 of the playoff series before the Lakers won Game 1 against the Grizzlies.
James has a 148–115–3 record against the spread in his NBA playoff history.
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Betting Odds: After a win against the Grizzlies in Game 1, the Lakers now find themselves as favorites to win the series at -295, compared to +230 for the Grizzlies DraftKings Inc dkng betting platform.
Game 2, which takes place on Wednesday night (April 19) at 7:30 ET, sees the game’s odds as pick ’em, meaning no team is the favorite and each has odds of -110. Odds are.
The Lakers have current odds of +1100 to win the NBA championship, which ranks sixth among the 16 teams in the NBA playoffs. The Lakers have +425 odds to win the Western Conference Finals, third among eight teams.
James is listed with odds of +1600 to win the NBA Finals MVP, which ranks eighth in the betting odds. James has won the Finals MVP four times in his career.
In Game 1 of the first round, James posted a stat line of 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, which saw his points and season averages of 28.9, 8.3 and 6.8 go down the line, respectively.
In his NBA Playoffs career, James has career averages of 27.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists.
For more on the sports betting landscape and what may be next for popular betting clauses and legislation, tune in to benzinga sports betting titans virtual event On 24 May.
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