The Los Angeles Lakers have been building momentum and picking up steam ahead of the NBA playoffs. After starting the season with Bronny James as the team’s leading storyline, the Lakers shifted the landscape when they pulled off a heist for Dallas Mavericks star point guard Luka Dončić.
Dončić’s first assist to LeBron James was a 70-foot outlet pass for an easy layup, highlighting the tandem’s early connection. Los Angeles is 18-10 (.643) with Dončić on the court and 15-8 (.652) when both James and Dončić have played together.
The Lakers finished the season as the third seed in the Western Conference with a 50-32 record, and they’ll begin the chase for their 18th championship banner against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday.
Massive bet wagers that Lakers will their 18th championship
While there are still plenty of hurdles between the opening round of the playoffs and the NBA Finals, at least one person is convinced that James and Dončić will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy. A bettor wagered $100,000 on the Lakers to win the NBA Finals at BetMGM Sportsbook, per Yahoo! senior sports betting analyst Ben Fawkes. The bet, the biggest reported futures wager so far, could win $1 million.
Los Angeles has the fourth-best odds to win the championship at +1,000, behind the Oklahoma City Thunder (+185), Boston Celtics (+200) and Cleveland Cavaliers (+550). Those odds still aren’t great, but they’re much better than they were before the Dončić trade. DraftKings Sportsbook had Los Angeles at +4500 in January, per Sports Illustrated.
James and Dončić have scored 116.1 points and allowed 114.1 points per 100 possessions in their 23 games together. Dončić had no trouble trampling the Timberwolves last year, when he helped Dallas eliminate Minnesota in five games during the conference finals. In that series, Dončić averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists.
If the Lakers advance, they could face the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets or Los Angeles Clippers in the conference semifinals. The Lakers cruised to a 140-109 victory over the Rockets earlier this month. Although they split their two matchups with the Nuggets last month, Denver is in a much less stable condition after firing their head coach right before the playoffs.
Regardless, reaching — and then winning — the NBA Finals will take heroic efforts from James, Dončić and the rest of the supporting cast.