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The Los Angeles Lakers are your 2020 NBA Champions! In perhaps the longest season ever, we reached the end of the road with the Lakers winning the title in five games over the Miami Heat. LeBron James took home NBA Finals MVP after scoring 28 points to help the Lakers clinch the championship on Sunday night in Game 6. Here we’re going to take a look back at the Lakers season and how they made it here.
Los Angeles Lakers championship odds
The Lakers opened the season last October with the second-best odds to win the title at +440 behind the Los Angeles Clippers (+350). By the time December rolled around, the Lakers and Clippers became co-favorites to win the title at +300. That remained the same until early February, when the Lakers took over as favorites at +275 over the Clips. That standing was short-lived, however, as the Bucks quickly became favorites to win the title at +275.
After that, the pandemic hit and the season was halted. The Bucks and Lakers traded spots as favorites to win it all on DraftKings Sportsbook throughout the months leading up to the season restart. It wasn’t until September when the Bucks fell from grace after going down 3-0 to the Heat in the second round of the playoffs. The Bucks were ousted and the Lakers and Clippers were once again 1-2 at the top of the title odds board. Because of the Lakers dominance in the postseason and the Clippers shortcomings, L.A. became large favorites at -200 in the middle of September. It all culminated in the Lakers going up on the Heat and finishing at -1000 to win the title heading into Game 5.
Los Angeles Lakers playoff run
First Round: Lakers over Trail Blazers 4-1
Second Round: Lakers over Rockets 4-1
Conference Finals: Lakers over Nuggets 4-1
NBA Finals: Lakers over Heat 4-1
As you can see, the Lakers never dropped more than one game in any of their series on the way to the 2020 title. In each of the first two rounds, the Lakers’ lone loss in the series came in Game 1. In the conference finals and finals, the Lakers lost Game 3 in each series. So a bit of a weird pattern there. Ultimately, the Lakers never really sweat out any of their series. They were never in danger of losing at any point, didn’t face much adversity on the way to their first title since 2010.