Basketball Betting

Top-seeded Lakers host Thunder in Game 1 of West quarters

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04/18/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers kick off their quest to repeat Sunday in the Western Conference quarterfinals against the talented Oklahoma City Thunder.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson got things started a little early, quickly putting both Thunder star Kevin Durant and the league's officials on notice once it was clear LA would match up with the Thunder in the first round of the postseason.

It was classic Jackson, a coach who has spent far more time mastering the art of mind games than the X's and O's.

"As far as the calls he gets on the floor, I think a lot of the referees are treating him like a superstar," Jackson said of Durant. "He gets to the line easily and often. He has the ability to create fouls. So, that's a big part of scoring, getting to the foul line.

The NBA on Thursday fined Jackson $35,000 for those comments.

Working officials is a tactic as old as the game itself and Jackson, who has been a part of 12 NBA championships as a player and a coach, sees it as just another part of the game. The so-called Zen Master wants to make sure it's his superstar, the veteran Kobe Bryant, who gets the benefit of the whistle and not the cocky young punk that hasn't earned anything, Durant.

Jackson is not the first to question the "treatment" Durant has gotten. Another long-time star, Boston's Kevin Garnett, was fined $25,000 for criticizing the referees during the Celtics' loss to the Thunder last month, when Durant paraded to the charity stripe 15 times and knocked them all down.

Garnett deadpanned that the Celtics were playing "Michael (expletive) Jordan."

Here's the thing. Durant is a superstar. The 6-foot-9 silky smooth forward is special and finished this season as the youngest scoring champion in NBA history, averaging 30.1 points per game. He also paced the league in free- throw attempts per game at 10.3.

"Ever since KG said something, everybody's been questioning how I get to the line," Durant told the Oklahoman. "If you watch our games, you wouldn't question it."

Jackson isn't really questioning it. In fact the Lakers' coach is likely a bit spooked by Durant's skill and is looking for any edge he can get, whether that's upsetting Durant himself or getting one or two subliminal calls out of officials that might have gone the other way.

It seems to be working. The 21-year-old Durant showed a little bit of the immaturity the Lakers' mentor was trying to exploit when addressing the issue on Wednesday.

"It's taking away from what I do," Durant said. "That's a part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that's just taking away from how I play. That's disrespectful to me."

The Thunder captured the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs, but played poorly down the stretch. Oklahoma City is in the postseason for the first time since the Seattle SuperSonics won the Northwest Division back in the 2004-05 campaign. It didn't fair particularly well against the Lakers this season, going 1-3, and has lost 12 of the past 13 matchups in the series. Durant averaged 25.8 points in those four games against LA.

Head coach Scott Brooks has a young and talented roster, but the unseating the defending champion Lakers is a tall task. While Durant steals all the headlines, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, James Harden and veteran Nenad Krstic are quietly doing their part in turning this franchise around.

Meanwhile, Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August, but has another date with the playoffs prior to his personal achievement. The legendary owner of the Lakers since 1979, Buss and the Lakers will begin defense of their championship as the No. 1 seed for a third straight year.

Buss has been the architect of one of the most successful organizations in the history of professional sports, and is aiming for the franchise's 16th NBA title. Los Angeles has won nine titles and reached the NBA Finals 15 times under the current ownership, and is trying to pull even with the Boston Celtics all-time record of 17 championships.

Last summer the Lakers beat Orlando in five games and raised the trophy for the first time since 2002, the last of three consecutive championships. The Lakers have missed the postseason just twice since the 1993-94 season.

LA also stumbled a bit down the stretch, however, without center Andrew Bynum and a banged-up Bryant.

Bynum missed the final 13 games with a strained right Achilles' tendon but suffered no pain or swelling after practice Saturday and is expected to start.

Bryant, who sat out four of the Lakers final five games to rest a swollen right knee, a broken right index finger and a balky ankle, is also raring to go.