Larry Bird goes for the jump shot.

Not everyone looks good in a tank top – myself, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to name three. But everything else about the NBA Finals looks perfect.

The Los Angeles Lakers vs. The Boston Celtics. This was the NBA’s leading rivalry up until 20 years ago, when Michael Jordan took over the league. Now it’s back, and television ratings are the highest since the last time the Lakers were in the Finals, four years ago.

Home-court advantage continues to be the critical factor in these playoffs. The Celtics won the first two games of the Finals at the Garden; Los Angeles replied 87-81 at the Staples Center Tuesday night, although Boston cashed in as 9-point underdogs to go up 3-0 ATS. No surprise that the Lakers had 34 free throws and the Celtics just 22. But it was unusual to see Paul Pierce shoot 2-for-14. That’s not something David Stern can control, is it?

The Los Angeles Lakers are into the second round of the NBA Playoffs. The Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns are not – and L.A. is the reason why.

The Lakers were able to trade assorted parts and draft picks for Pau Gasol. The Mavs (Jason Kidd) and the Suns (Shaquille O’Neal) made blockbuster deals in response, but those moves failed in the short term because the teams gave up too much talent and failed to play cohesive playoff basketball.

Los Angeles is still on an NBA Finals collision course with the rebuilt Boston Celtics, and the way Boston honked two games in Atlanta has to be encouraging for Lakers supporters. At press time, the Celtics were the NBA championship favorites at 7-5; L.A. is second at 9-4.

As they say, anything can happen in a short series, but I prefer the Lakers as a value pick and feel very confident in their chances of winning.

The best tip you could have received for NBA betting before the season began was to bet it all on the Celtics right from the start. But since the time machine hasn’t been perfected yet, you’ll have to do your homework to make some profit on your NBA bets the rest of the way. You can still keep dumping money on the Celtics, but Boston has since failed to cover the spread for the first time this season and fell to Orlando Sunday.

One factor you can take advantage of in NBA betting that doesn’t exist in the NFL is lengthy opposite-coast road trips. In the NFL teams play one week and get at least six days off before playing again. In the NBA fatigue can become a big factor when an east-coast team heads west, or a west-coast team heads east. Most coast-to-coast trips aren’t for just one game, and during a two- or three-game road trip across the country, the second or third game can be real tough on the visiting team. Give the schedule a closer look, find the teams making the cross-country journey, and try betting against them. It will often pay off.