Sports

Odds Shift Suggests LeBron James’ Injury May Have Little Impact On The Lakers’ NBA Title Chances

#Los Angeles Lakers
by Last Updated
LeBron James stands on the court.

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The Lakers’ title odds seemingly took a shot when star player LeBron James went down with an injury. Movement at the sportsbooks, however, suggest that those chances remain largely unchanged.

Fans are now reacting to the lack of line movement as the NBA season continues on through its second half.

As it stands today, the Lakers sit at 29-32 on the year. That mark puts them in last place in the Pacific Division, as well as 12th in the Western Conference.

If the season closed today, Los Angeles would be on the outside looking in in regard to playoff seeding.

That can be a bit deceiving, though, as the Lakers were one of the teams to get better at the trade deadline. The roster added players like D’Angelo Russell, Mo Bamba, and Malik Beasley.

Since that February 9th deadline, Los Angeles has gone 4-1 as they look to climb back into postseason contention. Unfortunately, their top scorer went down just as they started to click.

LeBron James will miss the next few weeks with a foot injury, leaving the rest of the squad to make up for his now missing 30 points per game.

Surprisingly, that’s had little effect on the Lakers’ NBA title odds.

According betting analyst John Ewing, there’s been no movement at the BetMGM sportsbook.

Ewing says that the Lakers sat at 30/1 to win an NBA Championship prior to James’s injury, and they’ve remained there in the aftermath.

Now, there could be a few reasons for that.

One could be that oddsmakers believe the new additions to the roster can help ease the blow of losing LeBron for two to three weeks.

Another, however, is that most never believed they were a championship contender to begin with.

Fans online seem to agree with the latter.

One person wrote, “LeDoesntmatter.”

Another simply said, “Lol.”

With or without LeBron in the lineup, the Lakers have work to do in order to get into the playoffs. Based on these odds, an NBA championship likely isn’t in the cards.