NBA: Celtics, Lakers a betting mismatch
The Los Angeles Lakers have a huge Christmas matchup with the Boston Celtics and their backers hope they fare better this time around.
Not only did the Lakers get upset in last year’s NBA Finals 4-2, but Boston covered the spread in every game of the series and the two regular season matchups as well. That’s an 0-8 ATS mark in total.
But despite the one-sidedness of the matchup from a betting perspective, this is the game that everyone wants to see on Christmas Day at 5 pm ET.
The NBA has decided to make Christmas a huge event with five nationally televised games including Washington at Cleveland and Dallas at Portland. You can get all the latest odds here at Sportsbook.com.
Coming into this season, the Lakers were the heavy favorite to win the NBA title, and they are still the slight favorite now. The thinking was that L.A. was improved with Andrew Bynum coming back from injury, while the older Celtics wouldn’t be able to keep up the intensity to go ‘back-to-back’.
And while both teams have great records, it’s the Lakers who have taken a hit to their reputation lately.
Los Angeles (23-5) is coming off a four-game road trip where they lost at Miami and Orlando and then struggled in beating Memphis. The last game of the trip was at New Orleans and the Los Angeles did get an impressive 100-87 win as 2 ½-point underdogs on Tuesday night.
That game marked only the second time that Los Angeles has been an underdog all season. It also stopped an amazing 11-game ATS losing streak that had Lakers’ backers seeing red.
Boston (27-2) last played on Tuesday night as well and they beat Philadelphia 110-91 to extend their winning streak to a franchise record 19 wins. Boston also set the NBA record for most wins for a team (27) with two losses.
The big difference between these squads right now is defense and the Celtics superior intensity on a nightly basis. The Lakers score almost five more points per night (107 vs. 102.3) but they give up six more (91.4 vs. 97.5).
Those Lakers’ defensive numbers get much worse if you look at their recent ATS losing streak as they let a number of opponents go way over 100 points. Part of the problem is just getting used to Bynum playing center and Paul Gasol at power forward, but the other part is effort, or lack thereof.
The Celtics play every game like their life depends on it and the leadership of Kevin Garnett, the veteran support of Paul Pierce and Ray Allen fuel this team every night.
Fans of the Lakers can point out they are 14-1 at home this season and they are desperate for revenge after losing in the Finals. Boston is 10-1 on the road, but they have failed to cover the spread in three of their last four away games.
One thing for sure, this game is far more important for L.A. who needs to send a message in case they meet again in the Finals.
