NBA Superstar Lebron James has won four NBA championships in his career and won them on three teams during his career. To win a fifth NBA championship in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, James must overcome a new career first.

What happened: The 2022-2023 NBA season was one of ups and downs for James. The NBA star missed a few games through injury and played 55 games, the second-lowest total of his career. During the season, James became the all-time NBA leading scorer, a feat it will be likely to last many years.

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in the 7th seed in the NBA Playoffs and meet the 2nd seeds of the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference, who made the playoffs after winning the play-in tournament.

Early in the NBA playoffs, the Grizzlies were favored at -130 odds to win the series compared to +110 odds for the Lakers.

This was the first time James found himself an underdog in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

James has a strong first-round record at 14-1 overall and lost his only first round of the 2020-2021 season, his last time in the NBA playoffs after the Lakers missed the postseason last season. The Lakers were the 7th seed in that playoff run and were favored over the 2nd seed Phoenix Suns.

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

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

Indeed, the odds of the Lakers winning the series at +110 were the third best in NBA playoff history ESPN.

James held a 3-14 record in Game 1 of the playoffs…