{"id":588850,"date":"2026-04-17T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588850\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:47:08","slug":"2025-26-nba-playoff-betting-report-bettors-iffy-on-banged-up-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/588850\/","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 NBA Playoff Betting Report: Bettors Iffy on ‘Banged-Up Lakers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bookmakers in Vegas and across the nation have the same conundrum every year when it comes to NBA<\/a> playoff odds: They want the Lakers<\/a> to be good but not too good.<\/p>\n

Win a series or two, maybe three, and preferably in six or seven games each time. Then get out of the way.<\/p>\n

So as the playoffs commence Saturday, a banged-up Lakers outfit isn\u2019t necessarily ideal.<\/p>\n

“The goal is for the Lakers to be around long enough to keep bettors involved but not win the championship. It\u2019s always a little bit of a sweat,” Caesars Sports pro basketball lead David Lieberman said. “But injuries have hampered bettors\u2019 expectations.”<\/p>\n

Lieberman helps break down how NBA playoff odds are being bet so far, ahead of the Saturday and Sunday first-round tip-offs.<\/p>\n

This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Home Underdog<\/p>\n

From Feb. 28-March 31, the Lakers went on a 16-2 run straight up (SU), while going 13-5 against the spread (ATS). Los Angeles significantly improved its playoff prospects, nearly catching Denver<\/a> for the 3-seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The Lakers (53-29 SU\/45-36-1 ATS) ended up No. 4, so they at least have home-court advantage against the No. 5 Rockets<\/a> (52-30 SU\/36-46 ATS).<\/p>\n

What the Lakers don\u2019t have: Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a>. Both players were injured in a blowout 139-96 loss at Oklahoma City<\/a> on April 2. Don\u010di\u0107 (hamstring) and Reaves (oblique) could miss all of the first round.<\/p>\n

Oddsmakers responded by making Houston a hefty -600 favorite in NBA first-round series odds, with the Lakers a +435 underdog. In other words, L.A. isn\u2019t expected to survive the first round.<\/p>\n

In fact, LeBron James<\/a> & Co. are 5.5-point home underdogs in Game 1, at 8:30 p.m. ET Saturday.<\/p>\n

“The Lakers are such a popular team, and they were playing well. We\u2019d taken a lot of action on the futures,” Lieberman said. “It\u2019s a little unfortunate. We\u2019re not seeing as much Lakers action as we otherwise would.”<\/p>\n

But if you feel like James can carry L.A. through the injuries, maybe the Lakers are worth a shot in the series. A $100 bet would net $435 profit (total payout $535), if Los Angeles can pull off the upset.<\/p>\n

Ones To Watch<\/p>\n

With Rockets-Lakers losing some luster, Lieberman pointed to two series that are more intriguing in NBA playoff odds: No. 6 Timberwolves<\/a> vs. No. 3 Nuggets<\/a> in the West and No. 6 Hawks<\/a> vs. No. 3 Knicks<\/a> in the East.<\/p>\n

“Those might be two of the better series,” Lieberman said. “Nuggets-Timberwolves should be highly competitive. And I think the Hawks have enough to give the Knicks a scare.”<\/p>\n

Denver (54-28 SU\/44-38 ATS) and Minnesota (49-33 SU\/37-45 ATS) open with a 3:30 p.m. ET start on Saturday. Two years ago, the Timberwolves knocked out the defending champion Nuggets in a second-round series, winning Game 7 on the road.<\/p>\n

This year, Denver is a -340 favorite to win the series, with Minnesota +265. The Nuggets are 6-point favorites in Game 1.<\/p>\n

New York (53-29 SU\/42-39-1 ATS) is a -275 favorite to beat Atlanta (46-36 SU\/44-38 ATS) in their series. The Knicks are 5.5-point favorites in Game 1, a 6 p.m. ET tip-off Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Hawks lost three of their last four regular-season games, but that was after a stout 18-2 SU\/16-4 ATS run. Hence Lieberman\u2019s semi-optimism toward Atlanta in this first-round matchup.<\/p>\n

“That series might go longer than people think,” he said.<\/p>\n

Seeing Into The Futures<\/p>\n

The Spurs<\/a> are arguably the hottest team in the NBA at the moment. From Feb. 1-April 2, San Antonio put together two 11-game win streaks as part of a torrid 27-2 SU overall run (17-11-1 ATS).<\/p>\n

Preseason, you could get the Spurs at +5000 or more in odds to win the NBA Finals. So a $100 bet would stand to profit $5,000.<\/p>\n

Now, the Spurs are all the way up to the No. 2 choice, at +415 in NBA championship odds, trailing only defending champion Oklahoma City (+125).<\/p>\n

San Antonio finished the regular season at 62-20 SU, again behind only the Thunder (64-20 SU).<\/p>\n

“People have been on the Spurs\u2019 bus for a long time now, probably as early as November, on a game-to-game basis and definitely on the futures,” Lieberman said. “The Spurs are not a good [championship] result for us. They\u2019re the biggest realistic liability.”<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth pointing out that San Antonio won four of five meetings vs. OKC this season.<\/p>\n

“The Spurs kind of had the Thunder\u2019s number. If that\u2019s their biggest obstacle, I could see them getting to the NBA Finals,” Lieberman said.<\/p>\n

No. 2 seed San Antonio meets No. 7 seed Portland<\/a> in the first round, with the Spurs massive -2000 favorites in NBA series odds.<\/p>\n

Detroit<\/a> is also a championship liability at Caesars. The Pistons (60-22 SU\/44-37-1 ATS) nabbed the No. 1 seed in the East and a date with either the Hornets<\/a> or Magic<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n

Despite that top seed, Detroit is the fifth choice in Caesars\u2019 NBA Finals odds at +1600, trailing aforementioned OKC and San Antonio, as well as Boston<\/a> (+550) and Denver (+850).<\/p>\n

Caesars has a host of solid teams that it\u2019s rooting for to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n

“Most of the shorter-odds teams are good for us,” Lieberman said, noting even a repeat OKC title is fine. “The Thunder are usually a good result for us because of having shorter odds. It\u2019s harder for liability to pile up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bookmakers in Vegas and across the nation have the same conundrum every year when it comes to NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6417,2205,11949,1753,15363,1055,3014,11951,2971,355,361,6402,11950,2116,99],"class_list":["post-588850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-betting","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-gambling","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-national-basketball-association","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-orlando-magic","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}