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Online gambling websites Bookmaker.com and Sportingbet.com (note that Sportingbet does not accept US customers at this time) were now offering the Los Angeles Lakers as a +3 ½ underdog in Sunday night's Game 5 of the 2009 NBA Finals. Their opponent, the Orlando Magic could win by 3 points and both Bookmaker.com and Sportingbet would still pay out on any Lakers bets, as opposed to much of their competition, which was offering the Lakers as +3 underdogs.
"If you were to bet the Lakers at +3 and Orlando wins by 3 points, it's going to be a push," explained Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com. "This means nobody gets paid."
It's a thin line between championship and choke, writes Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post.
"Sometimes even a team that could be worthy of a championship simply sabotages itself and becomes the subject of either ridicule or pity, which is exactly where the Orlando Magic lives now.
"What could be a 3-1 Orlando lead, or at the very least should be a 2-2 Finals deadlock, is now a 3-1 deficit with the Lakers set to win a championship here Sunday night. Instead of riding the momentum of a Game 4 victory and the good feelings that accompany hosting a week-long championship festival at home, Orlando's players and coaches now have to figure out how to dig themselves out of a basketball hell, the kind that comes when a team puts its hands on its own throat and turns certain victory into defeat."
"The desperation factor is what has oddmakers listing Orlando with a better line than in Game 4," Shapiro suggested. They opened the Game 4 line at Orlando -2 after Game 3 featured a line of -4. "I think there is a very good chance that Orlando can win yet another close one."
Orlando Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard says he's sure the NBA playoffs will not end Sunday night.
The Magic, who have been written off several times in these playoffs, have faith that they can become the first team in finals history to overcome a 3-1 deficit.
The first 29 failed.
"We know what's ahead of us," said Orlando center Dwight Howard, whose frightful free-throw shooting (6-of-14) in Game 4 hurt the Magic. "We know what's been said and the situation that we're in. We won't stop believing."
Bookmaker.com was adding a 20 percent bonus to new customer deposits (restrictions do apply)
Sportingbet.com was also offering a 20 percent bonus plus $50 free bet to qualified new depositing customers using the bonus code CA20SU (Sportingbet does not accept US customers at this time).
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
