Lakers vs. Clippers Head to Head: Who Gets The Best Of It?

Yesterday we posted an article looking at the 2019-2020 NBA regular season win totals for the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers. We also addressed the role that ‘recency bias’ plays in the public perception of these two teams. Today, we’re going to look at more Lakers vs. Clippers propositions that dovetail nicely with our discussion from yesterday.

BetOnline.ag is currently offering NBA prop betting odds on the outcome of the head to head games between the Lakers and Clippers during the 2019-2020 regular season:

WHO WINS SEASON SERIES LAKERS VS. CLIPPERS

Series Tie                             +100
Clippers                               +150
Lakers                                 +225

The pricing of this prop is based almost exclusively on the current public perception of the teams involved. The Clippers are seen as the ‘hot, exciting property’ and somehow the Lakers are viewed as ‘damaged goods’ based on their disappointing 2018-2019 season. That’s not really accurate. The Lakers have had as much of a wholesale transition in personal as the Clippers, if not more so.

Last season, the Lakers and Clippers played each other four times with each team winning twice. This is significant–as bad as the Lakers were at times last season they split the season series against the Clippers who finished with 11 more wins on the season. It’s also important to keep in mind that the usual home/road dynamic isn’t at play here since both the Lakers and Clippers play their home games at the Staples Center.

On one level, having ‘series tie’ as the favorite makes sense based on last year’s series result. Based on the NBA scheduling format, the Lakers and Clippers should play four times in the 2019-2020 season. The typical format is for each team to play four games against teams in their own division and either three or four games against teams from the other two divisions in the conference. But what if the NBA decided to tweak that a little bit based on the heightened anticipation surrounding the Lakers and Clippers rivalry and have the teams play each other *five* times? It would be easy enough to make work given the format. The NBA isn’t shy about this kind of thing and should that happen the ‘tie series’ is off the table.

The emotional/subjective dynamics of this season could also favor the Lakers. Kawhi Leonard will be in a tough psychological spot–he’s off a championship season but all of a sudden expected to lead a new team to playoff success. Leonard and Paul George are coming to a new team that met with considerable success during last season and gave the Golden State Warriors a tough fight in the playoffs. Leonard and George will have to work out *their* roles within the team and both players will have to make these roles fit within the established Clippers’ team concept. It’s not a given that every thing works out harmoniously. For the Lakers, however, it’s not an issue–it’s clear that it’s LeBron’s team. If a player can’t accept that they’ll be headed out of town sooner rather than later.

Throw in the motivation provided to the Lakers for a ‘redemption’ from their poor showing in 2018-2019 and the longstanding tradition of the franchise. They’ll not be willing to just roll over and share the spotlight with the upstart Clippers. There’s a lot of reasons to like the Lakers in the season series and the price makes it an even better play.

BET LOS ANGELES LAKERS TO WIN SEASON SERIES OVER LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS +225

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