A lot will have to change for the Lakers to be competitive with the Thunder in these playoffs.
After a troubling Game 1 loss to the Thunder 108-90, the Lakers find themselves again as 15.5-point underdogs on Thursday night.
Luka Doncic is not walking through that door to save the Lakers in Game 2 and maybe not ever in this best-of-7 series.
In order for the Lakers to be successful, they need to get a minimum of 20 points per game from Austin Reaves, though he was a terrible 3-for-16 from the field with only eight points.
Oklahoma City has plenty of wings to throw at Reaves to keep him off balance, while the Lakers don’t really have the horses to compete with Doncic out.
There’s certainly no Lakers moneyline bets coming here, as even Heat LeBron James couldn’t carry this team to a win on Thursday.
Still, there’s a betting angle we can take on this game.
The Lakers’ offense has been awful these playoffs, as the team has scored north of 107 points just once in seven playoff games.
The Thunder’s defense is suffocating, as Reaves can attest to.
In fact, the Lakers have scored 100 points against Oklahoma City just once in their last five games, with Doncic playing in just one of those games.
This is to say that the Lakers’ offense is really inefficient right now, and while some may expect better performance from Reaves in Game 2, I expect James to regress.
James was 12-for-17 from the field with 27 points in Game 1; that’s about as good as it’s going to get for James on four days’ rest.
It’s every other day from here on out, and with Doncic not close to returning, they can only hope for Luke Kennard to score 30 points or Reaves to carry them.
I’m not betting on that.
Target the Lakers’ team total under 98.5 (-115, BetMGM), a bet that has hit in four straight games.
As for a player prop, a good player to look at is Chet Holmgren.
Holmgren scored 24 last time out as the Lakers can’t match up with him. He has cleared his over of 14.5 points in four of his last five games played in these playoffs.
THE PLAY: Lakers team total under 98.5 (-115, BetMGM) | Holmgren over 14.5 points (+100, Fanatics)
Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting. During the football season he’s showcased massive profits at The Post in the player prop market the last two seasons. While constantly betting long shots, his return on investment is 30.15 percent since 2022.
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