Oklahoma City Thunder Betting Lines To Win Western Conference
May 15th, 2012 | Author: John
The Los Angeles Lakers were able to squeak by the Denver Nuggets in the first round, but a lack of maturity and in-house fighting is causing bettors to look elsewhere to win the Western Conference. If that wasn’t enough, Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder had to have been.
The Lakers looked old and out of touch against the thunderous assault of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. After a miserable 119-90 defeat in the opener, the Lakers are plummeting in betting lines, while Oklahoma City looks like a good value at -450 to win the series. It led by 15 at the half, and jumped out with a 15-2 run to start the third quarter and never showed signs of slowing down.
“We got beat tonight. You can say anything you want to about a seven-game series and us having a day or whatever,” Los Angeles coach Mike Brown said after the game. “The bottom line is this is the playoffs, we’ve got to come to play and we didn’t. We got beat.”
Looking down the road, Thunder are now tied with the San Antionio Spurs at 11/10 to win the Western Conference, according to Bovada’s NBA Western Conference Betting Lines.
Westbrook looked electric due to the lathargy of Los Angeles all night, scoring 27 points and pacing a hurried attack against the aging Lakers.
Oklahoma City hasn’t lost a game this postseason, sweeping defending champion Dallas in the first round. What’s more is how they played in that series’ Game 4, rallying from a 13-point defecit to win.
The Thunder have only lost to the Lakers once in three meetings this year – in overtime, no less. It was the only game to push the ‘over’, while the other games finished in the ‘under’ in regulation.
It’s hard to see this series going past five games, if not four, with the overwhelming talent difference. Plus, Los Angeles’ Metta World Peace already gave OKC the extra incentive when he jacked up James Harden during the regular season, resulting in a six game suspension. Oklahoma City is playing like a team on a mission, and should already be looking ahead at the San Antonio Spurs.