Lakers’ LeBron James largest underdog of 23-year career vs. Thunder in Game 1

On Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers will hit the floor on the road to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of their second round playoff series. The Lakers are coming off a six-game series win against the Houston Rockets in the first round, but the competition will level up about a hundred notches against the reigning champs.

The fact that the Lakers will be without Luka Doncic, and are starting out on the road, has made them understandably huge underdogs in Game 1 of this series. In fact, LeBron James has never had his team doubted quite like the Lakers are heading into this matchup.

“The Los Angeles Lakers are consensus 15.5-point underdogs in Game 1 tonight at the Oklahoma City Thunder,” reported Ben Fawkes of Yahoo Sports on X, formerly Twitter. “That would be the biggest underdog LeBron James has been in ANY game in his 23-year career.”

The remarkable stat includes both postseason and regular season games, and is a testament to how much respect oddsmakers have shown James throughout the years… as well as how little of a chance they give the Lakers to stay competitive against the reigning champs in round two.

Other large playoff point spreads for James included being a 12.5-point underdog in Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors back in 2018, as well as Game 2 against the Warriors in 2015, when Golden State was favored by 8.5

The Thunder made quick work of the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs, sending Devin Booker and company to Cancun in a four-game sweep, and they demolished the Lakers in all three regular season matchups this year.

The Lakers will be praying that Doncic is able to return at some point this series, but they will need to find a way to stay competitive in the first few games to even have that possibility matter later on.

Game 1 is set for Tuesday at 8:30 pm ET from Oklahoma City.

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