Los Angeles Lakers' NBA championship odds plummet after Luka Doncic injury news

The Los Angeles Lakers lost in embarrassing fashion against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, falling 139-96 — but Luka Doncic was hurt during the game, adding injury to insult. While the severity was unknown, it didn’t look good — and those fears were confirmed on Friday afternoon when ESPN reported that Doncic has a Grade 2 hamstring strain that will keep him out the rest of the regular season (five more games) and his status for the postseason is up in the air. It’s hard to overstate the impact that Doncic has had on a Lakers team that currently sits in the No.

3 seed in the Western Conference and had 25-1 odds to win the NBA title at BetMGM on Thursday night before the Thunder game. BetMGM lowered those odds all the way out to 150-1 for the Lakers on Friday in response to the injury news. For comparison, those are the same title odds as the Atlanta Hawks.

The sportsbook also moved the Lakers’ odds to win the West from 14-1 (fourth-best odds) to 55-1 (seventh). Even if Doncic could return sometime the first round, it’s likely that the Lakers would be underdogs against either the Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets or Denver Nuggets — their three most likely opponents. “If Doncic is out the first round, the Lakers would be an underdog in that series,” Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, told Yahoo Sports in a text message.

“I have them as a ‘dog against Denver even with him and home court. ”