Lakers star LeBron James will miss a season opener Tuesday for the first time in his 23-year NBA career because of sciatica.<\/p>\n
The absence of the 40-year-old four-time NBA MVP has had an adverse impact on Los Angeles\u2019 betting odds, though it hasn\u2019t stopped bettors from loading up on the Lakers to win the title this season.<\/p>\n
The Lakers are the Westgate\u2019s NBA title ticket leader, by more than twice as many as the next team, and the SuperBook\u2019s largest liability. The Lakers were as low as 12-1 in the offseason to win their 18th league championship and sat at 14-1 before shooting up to 16-1 after the team announced that James will miss the start of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a relatively easier schedule to start the season, but now that LeBron\u2019s going to miss what sounds like a month, we jumped their title odds,\u201d SuperBook NBA oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a loaded Western Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherman also lowered the Lakers\u2019 season win total from 49\u00bd to 46\u00bd, and Los Angeles has shifted from a 3\u00bd-point favorite over the Warriors in Tuesday\u2019s game to a 2-point home underdog.<\/p>\n
The Lakers will be led by Luka Doncic, who reportedly lost 31 pounds in the offseason and is the 3-1 third choice to win his first MVP award. The Thunder\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the 2-1 favorite at the Westgate to repeat as MVP, and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the +250 second choice to win his fourth MVP.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Luka has to carry the load for the first month without LeBron, so he can put up larger numbers out of necessity and be in that MVP conversation,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n
Rolling Thunder<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City is the clear +225 favorite to repeat as NBA champion and has the highest win total at 62\u00bd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re returning their entire team and a young core that won the title, so they were the obvious starting point,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets are the +650 second choice and money leader at the SuperBook, which took a $4,000 wager on Denver at 8-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had them at 16-1 until free agency started,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThey got some nice additions to help their bench out, and they look like they\u2019re going into this year better than they were last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denver traded Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson and also added Jonas Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown.<\/p>\n
Christmas gift<\/p>\n
With Celtics star Jayson Tatum and Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton expected to miss the season as they recover from torn Achilles tendons, the Cavaliers are the 7-1 third pick to win the title and the Knicks are the 9-1 fourth favorites.<\/p>\n
New York is a 2\u00bd-point home favorite over Cleveland in Wednesday\u2019s opener for both teams. The Westgate has the same line on the board for their Christmas Day matchup, which is why Sherman bet on the Cavaliers +4\u00bd in Wednesday\u2019s game when the line first came out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe funny thing about that game is I opened up their Christmas game a while back, and I had the Knicks -2\u00bd against the Cavs on Christmas, and the market opened their opening night game for the same matchup 4\u00bd,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I took the 4\u00bd, and now it\u2019s reflective of the Christmas line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best bet<\/p>\n
At the current numbers, Sherman\u2019s best bet on the season openers is on the Clippers (-9) over the Jazz on Wednesday. Utah has the second-lowest win total (20\u00bd), above the Nets (19\u00bd).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clippers played Kawhi (Leonard) a lot in the preseason,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThey got a lot of playing time together in the preseason, and it looks like they should be able to fluidly jump into the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg day<\/p>\n
Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall draft pick, is the odds-on -220 favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award. Jazz rookie Ace Bailey is the 9-1 second choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a wide separation with Cooper Flagg,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cHe was the obvious starting point. He got drafted to a good team and, without (injured) Kyrie (Irving) playing, he\u2019s expected to see a lot of playing time and should be a contributor to that team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @tdewey33<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n NBA odds<\/p>\n At Westgate SuperBook<\/p>\n Championship<\/p>\n Up to 30-1<\/p>\n Thunder +225<\/p>\n Nuggets +650<\/p>\n Cavaliers 7-1<\/p>\n Knicks 9-1<\/p>\n Rockets 14-1<\/p>\n Lakers 16-1<\/p>\n Clippers 16-1<\/p>\n Timberwolves 16-1<\/p>\n Magic 20-1<\/p>\n Warriors 25-1<\/p>\n Mavericks 30-1<\/p>\n 76ers 30-1<\/p>\n MVP<\/p>\n Up to 25-1<\/p>\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 2-1<\/p>\n Nikola Jokic +250<\/p>\n Luka Doncic 3-1<\/p>\n Giannis Antetokounmpo 9-1<\/p>\n Victor Wembanyama 12-1<\/p>\n Anthony Edwards 25-1<\/p>\n Rookie of the Year<\/p>\n Up to 20-1<\/p>\n Cooper Flagg -220<\/p>\n Ace Bailey 9-1<\/p>\n Tre Johnson 10-1<\/p>\n Dylan Harper 14-1<\/p>\n VJ Edgecombe 14-1<\/p>\n Kon Knueppel 20-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers star LeBron James will miss a season opener Tuesday for the first time in his 23-year NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-230100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}