Betting tips / Matthew Reid / 08 May 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

An impressive Lakers look the goods to Matt Reid to progress further in the NBA play-offs on Wednesday morning (AEDT) when they meet the Denver Nuggets.

The Lakers - Nuggets series returns back to Los Angeles tomorrow, where the Lakers have the opportunity to progress to the Conference Semi-Finals with a victory.

The Lakers have been very impressive in this series, comfortably taking care of home court before grabbing a vital win on the road to basically put the series beyond doubt.

Oklahoma City awaits the winner of this match-up, which will not be lost on the Lakers given the additional rest that they are receiving while this series goes on. The Lakers will be desperate to take out game five and avoid heading back to Denver, which could prove costly for their overall title aspirations.

It will not be lost on Kobe Bryant that the Spurs and Thunder are already waiting in the Conference Semi's. Kobe is the best closer in the game, particularly at the age of 33, and having a few injury issues late in the season will know the importance of taking care of a team while they are down.

The Nuggets caused few problems when the teams met in Los Angeles early in this series, with Andrew Bynum dominant and the Lakers cruising out to early leads.

Ultimately the Nuggets lack of a superstar to close out games has proven costly for them, particularly in game four, and it will be the Lakers stars in game five who ensure this series ends up with a 4-1 score line.

I am surprised to see the Lakers as wide as 1.40 for this game. To put that price into perspective, the Chicago Bulls are 1.50 for game five of their series against Philadelphia, despite them dropping the last two games and playing without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

I would have expected the Lakers to be 1.25-1.3, with a line in the nine-point vicinity, so 1.4 and a line of around six looks great value for the Lakers to close this series.

Back the Lakers to progress and face Oklahoma City in a highly anticipated second round match-up.