Los Angeles Lakers Betting Odds – NBA Basketball Futures – Gambling Picks
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Los Angeles Lakers
Sportsbook.com Lakers Odds to win NBA title – 5/2
Key players added – Steve Blake, Theo Ratliff
Key players lost – Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell
The Lakers are almost completely unchanged from last season, and why not? Los Angeles played in its third consecutive Western Conference Finals and won its second straight NBA Championship. It’s little surprise that L.A. is again favored to come out on top of the West.
Kobe Bryant once again led the team in scoring, but injuries are a growing concern for the superstar. Bryant is almost always banged up, and last season it cost him nine games. Management, certainly, but the Lakers can’t afford to be without him for long stretches. He’s already dealing with knee and finger injuries but has played well in the preseason, so it can’t be considered too serious at the moment.
Bryant isn’t the only player forced to deal with the injury bug last year. The Lakers’ frontcourt wasn’t as formidable as it maybe could have been as Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum missed 17 games each.
The hope is for both to make it throughout the entire season, a scary proposition for opposing teams. Gasol is already a load to handle; teams don’t want to be worry about Bynum, too. Bynum didn’t have a great postseason, though, as he was only given about 24 minutes per game and responded with 8.6 points per night.
He was great on the glass, however.
The X-factor is crazy old Ron Artest. Artest gave L.A. exactly what it needed last season; great defense, opportunistic scoring and generally irritating the hell out of the other team (not to mention a few laughs along the way).
The kooky but volatile guard managed to keep his head on all year but, as any NBA fan is well aware of by now, Artest is a ticking time bomb. Perhaps maturity and Phil Jackson have calmed Artest down, but it’s also entirely possible he’ll show up to a game not wearing pants, shower the Laker girls with gummi worms and promptly demand a trade—you just don’t know with this guy.
Either way, the Lakers look stacked again; a three-peat may very well be on the horizon, as Los Angeles could be even better than last year if it gets full seasons out of Bryant, Gasol and Bynum.
If something goes down with Artest, the club will find a way to flip him into something useful—or Bryant will just turn the volume up another notch.
A dream match-up of Kobe Bryant vs. the Miami Heat could be in the making; we can certainly count on Bryant and Co. to do their part of the job.
Surprising stat: The Lakers weren’t in the Top-8 for scoring or defense.
Strengths: Continuity. All five starters from last year’s title team return for another run.
Weaknesses: Injuries are a growing concern. Ron Artest could explode at any moment.
Playoffs? You better believe it.
Win total projection for 2010-11: 55+
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