NBA Finals Prediction: Boston Celtics at Los Angeles Lakers Game 4 is scheduled to tip off Thursday evening in primetime, just a bit after 9 pm on the east, from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. Finally in game 3 were the LA Lakers able to solve the riddle that has been the Boston Celtics’ defense. But how exactly did LA get back in this series, how is it that they won game 3? SportsBetting.com has the Los Angeles Lakers a -7 point NBA Finals betting odds favorite vs. the Boston Celtics (+7).
With both teams having played poorly in game 3, questions were being asked, and reporters were scrambling for answers in yesterday’s media session. But there wasn’t a single that was harassed more by the press than Lakers’ F Lamar Odom. The O/U for NBA Finals Prediction: Boston Celtics at Los Angeles Lakers Game 4 has been set at a combined 191 total points. 
According to head coach, Phil Jackson, Odom has looked lost during most of these finals. The Zen Master understands how important Lamar Odom is in the Lakers’ chances of winning championship No. 15.
Lamar is the single biggest key for the Lakers, to pull off the incredible feat of coming from behind to win the 2008 NBA Championship.
Yet so far, Lamar has been he biggest disappointment after 3 games. Odom is averaging just 9.3 points (5 below his regular-season average) and has spent much of the past two games on bench due to foul trouble.
Will the Lakers even out this series against Boston tonight? I believe so, but the important past is how they are going to do it. At the end of game 2, when LA almost came back to win after being down 24 points in the 4th quarter, they took something away from the Celtics’ defense. By surrounding Kobe Bryant with shooters like Sasha Vujacic, Vlad Radmanovic, and Jordan Farmar, LA forced the C’s defense to make a decision: let Kobe beat them, or let the role players beat them? And this is also the reason why Sasha Vujacic was able to have a monster 3 off the bench. If the Lakers can continue to spread the floor -by surrounding KB24 with shooters- Boston will have the same predicament as they did at the end of game 2 and through game 3.
Thus, Boston needs to decide: if they are going to build that “wall” when Kobe touches the ball, and leave wide-open shooters. Or play man-to-man, and allow Kobe to penetrate the paint, and either get fouled, finish the play, or handed to one of their “bigs”, creating point-blank shot opportunities.
Either way, the keys for LA are: continue to be aggressive, crash the boards, and Lamar needs to get off. I think Boston needs to adjust quickly (to what I stated above), or this game might become a blow out, assuming LA will execute.
SportsOdds.com NBA Finals Prediction: LAL -7
