NBA Betting Free Picks: Boston @ LA Lakers
Added on Jun 06, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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It’ll be a busy Sunday at sportsbooks with a full card of Major League Baseball, NASCAR and the NBA and NHL playoffs. We’ll look at a few NBA betting opportunities in Game 2 of the NBA Finals as the LA Lakers host the Boston Celtics. The Lakers won the first game of the series with relative ease, and following this game the series will shift back to Boston for the next three games (if necessary).
Boston Celtics at Los Angeles Lakers
June 6, 5:05 PM Pacific
We’re of the opinion that Boston is somewhat overvalued in this spot, due in large part to the history of the Celtics/Lakers rivalry. The simple fact is that this season the Western Conference was much stronger than the East. The Celtics really had a perfect setup to make it to the finals, facing an inconsistent Miami team, a Cleveland team that–for whatever reason–appeared to ‘quit’ midway through the series, and an Orlando side that struggled in the halfcourt set. The two regular season games between Boston and LA were very close, with Boston winning by 1 at LA and the Lakers winning by a single point in Boston. Of course everyone knows that regular season results are essentially meaningless.
We look for a similar style of play as in Game 1, with the Lakers’ defense limiting the Celtics’ offense en route to another relatively easy victory. The Celtics could very well make this a competitive series, but that won’t happen until play shifts to Boston. In addition, we look for this game to go Under the total. The first game landed right around the total, and the result depended on what price you got. Game 2 will likely play out much more like the two regular season contests where the teams combined for 173 and 179 points.
Finally, we look for Kobe Bryant to score at least 30 points and as a result we’ll play the Over in the scoring prop bet offered by many books. The number is set at 29.5, which is Kobe’s per game average during the postseason. If you look at his output game by game, however, you’ll notice that since the Oklahoma City series (where the Thunder did a very good job defending him) he’s scored 30 or more points in 10 of the 11 playoff games.
Bet LA Lakers -5′ over Boston Celtics
Bet LA Lakers/Boston Celtics Under 190
Bet Kobe Bryant Over 29.5 points +105
