NBA Playoff Betting Preview: Lakers Looking Beatable In West

The Los Angeles Lakers have been to two straight NBA Finals and started the season looking like the strong favorites to win the Western Conference again this season. Now, however, as the season nears an end, L.A. no longer looks like an unstoppable force.

In the past week alone, the Lakers have lost three road games. They have kept teams around all year that they should be blowing out, and they have taken some lopsided losses to playoff caliber teams.

That is not exactly what Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant envisioned when they embarked on a journey to win title number five together this year. Instead of sprinting to the finish line in preparation of a title defense, the Lakers are limping down the stretch.

Injuries have been a major part of the Lakers season. They started the season without Pau Gasol. Then, they lost Bryant prior to the All-Star break, and now they have been without Andrew Bynum, who always seems to be injured late in the year.

All the while, they have been hurt by a lack of consistency from Ron Artest, Derek Fisher, and Jordan Farmar. Even normally reliant Luke Walton has missed most of the season with a back problem.

Los Angeles still has time to turn things around, but another blow out loss at the hands of Atlanta Wednesday did not reassure anyone that the Lakers have the ability to turn it on when the big lights of the playoffs come on.

The one thing the Lakers have going for them is that Bryant looks healthier now than he has been all season long. Whether that is enough to get them through a tough Western Conference is unknown, but it does give them a fighting chance.

April 1, 2010
Posted By Vincent Tapoglia III
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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