Lakers Dodge Bullet With Bynum

Published by lakers-fan.com on April 18th, 2011 | Tagged lakers

There was a point in time a couple of weeks ago when the Los Angeles Lakers looked like they might have a shot to finish first in the Western Conference. Now NBA betting fans know that they are happy to have clinched second in the conference and in good shape health-wise once the playoffs begin.

Lakers fans briefly had a ghostly expression on their face when they saw center Andrew Bynum drop to the ground. On Tuesday night in a contest against San Antonio – a team that the Lakers will very likely see in the playoffs – Bynum hyperextended his knee and then sat out the last game of the season. The good news is that the Bynum had an MRI and it showed only a minor bone bruise and he should be fine for the playoffs.

Bynum has proven to be quite injury prone in his young career with the Lakers but at the same time, he’s been quite the valuable commodity. Case and point: while he might be out for one or two playoff games to start, he’ll provide a huge size advantage over Emeka Okafor, who will be completely overmatched with both Bynum and Pau Gasol to deal with.

Finishing second in the conference isn’t as big of a downer as some people might think. The Lakers would have liked to have home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs but by finishing second, they would face the winner of the Dallas Mavericks-Portland Trail Blazers series, which means they won’t have to play both San Antonio and Oklahoma City. Those two will likely square off in the second round amongst themselves.

As for the Hornets, the Lakers swept all four games with them this season including a 110-82 win in their most recent meeting. With power forward David West out, this won’t be much of a contest.

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