NBA Sharp Betting Pick: Trail Blazers vs. Lakers Game 2 (Thursday, August 20)
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images. Pictured: LeBron James
Trail Blazers vs. Lakers Betting Odds
| Trail Blazers Odds | +6.5 [BET NOW] |
| Lakers Odds | -6.5 [BET NOW] |
| Moneyline | +225/-278 [BET NOW] |
| Over/Under | 229 [BET NOW] |
| Time | 9 p.m. ET |
| TV | ESPN |
Odds as of Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET and via DraftKings. Get up to a $1,000 sign-up bonus at DraftKings today or see more offers and reviews for the best online sportsbooks.
If Game 1 of the Blazers-Lakers series served as bettors’ opportunity to test the waters of backing Playoff Dame over Playoff LeBron, Game 2 is nose dive into the deep end.
The first game of this series saw bettors close to split on the spread — which opened at Lakers -5.5 and moved to -6.5 — with the slight majority (53%) landing on the Blazers.
Tonight’s game is nowhere near as split.
Most books opened the Blazers at +5, and coming off a 7-point outright win, most bettors have been more than convinced that Portland is the correct side. Sixty-four percent of tonight’s spread tickets have landed on the Blazers.
But sharps? They aren’t so sure that Game 1 wasn’t a fluke.
Trail Blazers vs. Lakers Sharp Betting Pick
As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve taken a recent peek at the odds board, the Lakers are no longer just 5-point favorites. In fact, even with just 36% of bettors on their side, they’re right back up to Tuesday night’s closing line of -6.5.
Part of the reason for the move? The 36% of bettors on the Lakers have generated a more balanced 43% of actual money. Obviously, that’s still not enough to create a monetary liability. It does, however, reveal how bigger bettors — the ones more likely to be sharps — are playing this game.
Confirming that, three Sports Insights Bet Signals — which track and record instances of market-wide movement caused by sharp action — have been triggered on the Lakers (one at -5.5, two at -6), getting this line up to its current listing.
And for what it’s worth, since the 2015-16 season (when we began tracking money percentages), NBA Playoff favorites getting a higher percentage of money than bets have gone 100-58-1, winning 36.9 units for a 23.2% return of investment.
Sharp angle: Lakers (moved from -5 to -6.5) [Bet $20+ on the Lakers at PointsBet and Win $125 if they have at least one dunk]