NBA Championship Odds: The Howard Effect

Team USA - loaded with American basketball stars - has won the Gold at the Olympics earlier this week, beating the NBA Stars-heavy Spanish National Team. We now officially have a break until October 30, when the NBA 2012-2013 Season will begin.

Analysis, predictions and rumors are all the fuss on the blogosphere. But the off-season is betting season too, after all.

888sport is open now to accept your early bet on the identity of the 2012-2013 NBA Champion. The long-term basketball odds look like this:

The Miami Heat are heavy favorites to repeat, at 9/5. Clearly, Lebron James has made a strong case for these odds at the London Olympics, recording, among other feats, the first ever triple-double statistical line in a game by a US Team player.

At second place on the odds offered NOW at 888sport are the Los Angeles Lakers, at 11/4. The Dwight Howard mega-deal, in which the Lakers had to part with Andrew Bynum, but have kept Pau Gasol, who was valued a trade asset for the better part of the season last year, has bumped them up the odds ladder. That, and an earlier signing of 2-time MVP Steve Nash.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are not the sports betting lines' favorites to come out of the Western Conference, in spite of 3-time scoring leader Kevin Durant's heroics at the Olympic Games. OKC is 11/2.

It would be wise to inspect those "other" teams, lower in the odds and considered second tier behind the Lakers and the Heats of the league.

Memphis Grizzlies could be a wise bet at 33/1, the Denver Nuggets at 40/1, and Dallas Mavericks with similar odds (40/1).

And visit 888sport yourself to evaluate the league standings now, well before the league opens, for a $50 bet or other, a couple of bets perhaps, and a pleasant surprise in about 10 months when the champion emerges, when you can say "I TOLD YOU SO!"