5Dimes has the Lakers as the favorite to win the series and that only makes sense. The Finals have essentially been reduced to a best-of-three series, and the Lakers close it out with two straight home games.<\/p>\n
Home-court advantage hasn\u2019t had a huge impact on this series. Both teams are experienced and know how to handle games away from home. However, you still have to account for the arena-factor when looking at the series price. The TD Garden erupted last night and got so loud that at times the players couldn\u2019t hear the referees\u2019 whistles.<\/p>\n
The Celtics hope to capitalize on this atmosphere in their final home game and go up 3-2 in the series. The Lakers \u2013 no matter what happens Sunday \u2013 will have a chance to play in front of their home-crowd at least one more time.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles runs at -200 to win the series and seem to be favored by the betting public. If you think the Celtics will end up World Champions, you will get $170 for your $100 bet.<\/p>\n
Expect this price to move a little, depending on the word on Andrew Bynum\u2019s status. Bynum is a crucial element to the Lakers\u2019 success. He tweaked his torn meniscus twice in Game 3 and played only 12 minutes Thursday. He didn\u2019t even come out of the locker room at the start of the second half, and received more treatment from trainers.<\/p>\n
He came into the game late in the third quarter, but only stayed on the floor for one minute and fifty seconds. The Lakers sorely missed their starting center in the rebounding department. The Celtics outrebounded Los Angeles by seven with Bynum out, and outscored them 54-34 in the paint.<\/p>\n
Bynum\u2019s absence helped Big Baby to his huge game. Without Bynum\u2019s big body in the game, the Lakers had to change up their defense. They also couldn\u2019t match the intensity that Big Baby brought to the game. They need Bynum to provide that type of play and be physical.<\/p>\n
They also missed Bynum offensively. Bynum averaged 15 points per game this season as well as 2.7 offensive rebounds. Big Baby grabbed five rebounds and scored 18 points on a 70 percent shooting performance.<\/p>\n
Monitor Bynum\u2019s situation closely when making your series bet, as it could have a huge impact on the games as well as the price. Lamar Odom will have to step up and I\u2019m not sure he can have the same impact that Bynum has on the Lakers\u2019 play.<\/p>\n
Also keep an eye on Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo in Sunday\u2019s game. The two Celtics guards need to step it up if Boston wants to have a chance to win the series. While the bench picked up the struggling stars Thursday, the Celtics can\u2019t bank on that for the final three games.<\/p>\n
If you take out Allen\u2019s great first half in Game 2, he is shooting 9-for-38 in the series for a measly 23 shooting percentage. The Celtics need a better performance from Allen to have a chance to win this series. Watch Allen Sunday and see if he can bounce back and improve on his shooting.<\/p>\n
Bynum says he will be ready to go after the two days of rest and treatments. He plans to have a bigger impact in Sunday\u2019s game. If for some reason, Bynum will be ruled out for any time of the rest of the series, watch for the line to swing in favor of the Celtics. If new comes out that Bynum can be back to 100 percent, the line could move even more in the Lakers\u2019 direction.<\/p>\n
Right now, I need to see Bynum be able to play extended minutes, or else I would pick the Celtics to win Sunday and put themselves in a position to win the series by stealing one in Los Angeles. He is too important for the Lakers to overlook his impact on the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
5Dimes has the Lakers as the favorite to win the series and that only makes sense. The Finals have essentially been reduced to a best-of-three series, and the Lakers close it out with two straight home games. Home-court advantage hasn\u2019t had a huge impact on this series. Both teams are experienced and know how to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":3211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[1454,1565,1495,1828,186],"class_list":["post-4074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-1454","tag-celtics","tag-lakers","tag-nba-betting","tag-nba-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4075,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4074\/revisions\/4075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}