Sportsbooks Rejoice as Los Angeles Lakers are Eliminated from NBA Playoffs Contention

After a tumultuous season that featured a ton of injuries, the Los Angeles Lakers have been eliminated from postseason contention.

The Lakers won the NBA title in 2020, but have also have missed the playoffs in 2 of LeBron James' 4 seasons with the organization after the team lost to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, falling to 31-48 on the year.

The Lakers entered the season as the second choice to the Brooklyn Nets to win the NBA Championship at +350 after acquiring Russell Westbrook to play alongside James and star Anthony Davis. However, James and Davis have battled injuries all season, combining to miss 62 games, and Westbrook's decline as a player was apparent as the team fell out of postseason contention.

This was a big win for sportsbooks as the Lakers garnered a ton of bets in the NBA Championship market ahead of the season and during it. Many tried to catch the falling knife of the injury riddled the Lakers, but it didn't work.

Alan Berg, Senior Trading Manager at WynnBET Sportsbook, shared his thoughts on the Lakers being eliminated on Tuesday night:

"We went to 50-1 price on February 10th on the Lakers to win the championship and got plenty of bets on them," Berg told BetSided. "It was highest in the marketplace at the time. We had some high liability on them at that point, which obviously we're really glad about now."

WynnBET made the swift move to making the Lakers longshots to win the title way back in February, and it's clear that the situation was unsolvable for head coach Frank Vogel and the stars in LA.

As for now, the sportsbook is still sitting with a ton of action on the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns, the two favorites to win the Western Conference as of this writing.

"The Grizzlies and Suns are our two biggest liabilities. That is mostly based on the fact that we have a lot of fans in Tennessee and Arizona betting on their squads."

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