Lakers News: LA Emerges As Massive Betting Underdog Vs Nuggets

The Los Angeles Lakers have punched their ticket to the 2024 NBA playoffs. This is the fourth time in the five seasons of the LeBron James-Anthony Davis era that the Lakers have been in the playoffs.

The Purple and Gold will look to hang banner number 18 this season; however, it won't come easily. Right off the bat, the Lakers will face their kryptonite, the Denver Nuggets, in a rematch of the 2023 Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers and Nuggets will meet for the second consecutive time in the playoffs, and the Lakers' chances of winning are dim.

According to BetMGM, the Lakers are heavy underdogs. The Nuggets (-375) are considered massive favorites to win the series over the Lakers (+300).

The Lakers last beat Denver on December 16, 2022, 126-108. Since then, the Nuggets have owned the Lakers, winning eight matchups in a row, including last year's playoff series.

This season, the Lakers faced the Nuggets three times, and they were all relatively close contests in which the Nuggets came out on top. The results of the past eight games, especially since the WCF, have all been the same. The Lakers are either ahead or crawling back from a huge deficit; the Nuggets then come back, or the Lakers crawl back. In the last few minutes, the Nuggets do their thing and get critical stops and timely buckets from their five out on the court. It's been the same story, just a different game.

Los Angeles will look to change all that and do the impossible in the first round of the playoffs.

According to Fan Duel, the Nuggets have the second-best odds of winning the 2024 championship at +300, while the Lakers have the tenth-best odds at +2900.

Can the Lakers do the impossible? We'll find out starting Saturday.