LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers can claim the championship with a win on Friday night when they battle the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals as 7-point favourites on the NBA odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Los Angeles continued its impressive run through this year’s NBA playoffs with a 102-96 victory over Miami on Tuesday, giving the team a 3-1 series lead heading into Friday night’s matchup at AdventHealth Arena.
The Lakers have been dominant since overcoming a shaky start in their return to play inside the NBA bubble. Since going 2-6 straight up in their first eight contests, capped by a 100-93 loss to Portland in Game 1 of their first-round series, the Lakers have gone 15-3 SU. But despite averaging over 114.5 points per game during their 18-game tear, the Lakers have struggled to reward bettors, going 2-5-1 against the spread over their past eight outings, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
That trend has done little to dent the Lakers’ strong position on the NBA playoff series prices. After avoiding consecutive defeats over their past 18 contests, Los Angeles is now perched as a massive -15000 favourite to eventually knock off the Heat, and sports short -325 odds at sports betting sites of closing out the series in five games.
Now facing a must-win situation, the Heat look to Game 5 as +255 moneyline underdogs. The team needed just 10 total games to record series wins over Indiana and the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first two rounds of the playoffs, but has cooled off considerably since. The Heat needed six games to dispose of the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, and have now failed to post consecutive SU wins during a current 3-5 SU run.
Hobbled by injuries early on this series, most notably to point guard Goran Dragic, who remains listed as doubtful for Game 5, there is little indication Miami is about to snap out of its current funk.
Accordingly, the Heat have tumbled to a distant +1800 wager to come back and claim a series win. The Heat are winless SU in their past three Game 5 appearances when facing elimination, including a season-ending loss to San Antonio in Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals. However, Miami has continued to produce steady results at the sportsbooks, covering in each of its past three contests, and going 15-5 ATS in 20 playoff contests to date.
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