The Western Conference Finals was not supposed to be competitive in basketball betting but the Phoenix Suns won Games 3 and 4 and now the series is tied heading back to Los Angeles. The Lakers are favored in NBA betting in Game 5 on Thursday as they look to regain control of the series.
Basketball betting odds list the Lakers as 7.5 point favorites in Game 5. Los Angeles easily won the first two games of this series but then they went to Phoenix and lost twice. The home team has won and covered every game in this series which is why the number is so high in Game 5. The average margin of victory in this series is double-digits so it may not be a close game on Thursday night. The games have also been high scoring as each game has gone over the total. Many bettors like to take the home team and the over in a parlay and that has worked in all four games.
You would think that the Conference Finals would be close but that simply has not been the case. The Suns played no defense in the first two games in Los Angeles and the Lakers returned the favor in Phoenix as they couldn’t slow down the Suns at all. That could change in Game 5 since Los Angeles head coach Phil Jackson and Lakers star Kobe Bryant are sick of the poor defensive play. Kobe has said that defense wins championships and he is right. Unless the Lakers start to defend they could be in trouble in this series.
The worst thing that happened to the Lakers in this series happened in Game 2. The Lakers shot the ball extremely well from the outside and they forgot about the inside game. They decided they could get into an outside shooting contest with the Suns. No team can do that consistently and win vs. the basketball betting odds. Phoenix lives for three-point shots. If the Lakers want to win this series they need to pound the ball inside and play defense. They didn’t do either one of those two things in the two games in Phoenix. The Lakers have gotten outstanding play from Kobe Bryant in this series but they head to Los Angeles tied 2-2. Pivotal Game 5 is tonight with the Lakers a 7.5 point favorite in NBA betting.