LeBron James A first-round underdog for the first time in NBA history: Can the Lakers pull off the upset

NBA superstar LeBron James has won four NBA championships in his career, winning them on three teams in his career. To secure a fifth NBA championship in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, James will need to overcome another career first.

What happened: The 2022-23 NBA season was one of highs and lows for James. The NBA star missed a few games through injury, playing 55 games, the second-lowest tally of his career. Over the course of the season, James became the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a feat that will likely last for many years to come.

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves with the 7th seed in the NBA Playoffs against the 2nd seed Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference, after winning the qualifying tournament for make the playoffs.

To start the NBA Playoffs, the Grizzlies were favored to win the series at -130 odds against the Lakers at +110 odds.

It was the first time that James found himself as an underdog in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

James has a strong first-round record at 14-1 overall, losing his only first-round comeback of the 2020-21 season, his last time in the NBA Playoffs after the Lakers missed the playoffs last season. The Lakers were the 7th seed in this playoff series and found themselves preferred to the second-seeded Phoenix Suns.

Counting the first round and the rest of the NBA playoffs, James found himself an underdog in a series a total of 11 times in his 20 seasons. In the previous 10 series with James as the betting underdog, James is 4-6, including a 2-2 record in the NBA Finals as an underdog, according to Action Network.

The good news for James and Lakers fans (or bettors who support him) is that the Lakers have won their first game of the series against the Grizzlies and have now turned the tables on betting odds.

The Lakers' odds of winning the series at +110 were actually the third-best in NBA playoff history according to ESPN.

James was 3-14 in Game 1 of the road playoffs before the Lakers won Game 1 against the Grizzlies.

James holds a record of 148-115-3 ATS in NBA Playoff history.

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Betting odds: After the win over the Grizzlies in Game 1, the Lakers now find themselves as the favorites to win the series at -295, compared to +230 for the Grizzlies on the DraftKings Inc. DKNG Betting Platform.

Game 2, which takes place on Wednesday night (April 19) at 7:30 p.m. ET, sees the odds of the game being a pick, which means no team is favored and each has a chance of -110.

The Lakers have current odds of +1100 to win the NBA Championship, ranking sixth among the 16 NBA Playoff teams. The Lakers have odds of +425 to win the Western Conference Finals, placing third among eight teams.

James is listed at +1600 odds to win the NBA Finals MVP title, ranking eighth among betting odds. James has won Finals MVP four times in his career.

In Game 1 of the first round, James posted a stat line of 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, which saw his points and assists down from his average line for the season of 28.9, 8.3 and 6.8 respectively.

In his NBA Playoffs career, James has career averages of 27.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists.

Find out more about the sports betting landscape and what could be next for the people...