The opportunity to play four games at the Garden makes the Celtics the value team when looking at the sports betting series as a whole. That value skyrockets on the NBA futures betting market for the 2008 Finals MVP. Kobe Bryant is the runaway favorite at –250 to win this prestigious award; he was the regular-season MVP for the first time in his career, and he’s the best player on the Lakers by a fair amount. But L.A. has to finish off the Celtics for Kobe to realistically win the Finals MVP. The only man from the losing team to get the nod was Jerry West in 1969, the first year the MVP was awarded.

Boston’s potential MVP vote would likely be handed out to either Kevin Garnett (+250) or Paul Pierce (+450); Ray Allen has found his touch again and could be a dark horse pick at +1000, but he doesn’t bring as complete a skill set to the floor as Garnett. The “Big Ticket” was this year’s defensive MVP and remains the biggest star on his team.

Los Angeles lost both games to Boston during the regular season (both well before the Gasol trade) and failed to handle the C’s in the paint. Gasol is good at shot blocking and rebounding but is not as good a defender as Andrew Bynum, who struggled against Garnett and the Celtics. Advantage: KG.

The NBA odds have Boston as a 2.5-point online betting favorite (-145 on the moneyline) for Thursday’s Game 1. The total is 192.

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