Betting news, trends, odds and predictions for from various handicappers and websites for Wednesday 5/30/18
Golden State Warriors Are Massive Favorites in NBA Finals
The Cavaliers Have Their Work Cut Out For Them…
After a pair of absolutely thrilling Game 7’s, we have the fourth straight rematch of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors that pretty much half of everyone I talk to wanted. Most people are like “Man, I just want something different!” That’s fine, but there’s literally nothing as compelling as LeBron versus Golden State. For now, it’s the best we can get.
The Warriors have been inserted as insane -1000 favorites to win the 2018 NBA Finals, facing a Cleveland team that is listed at +725. All people want to talk about is “sweep or no sweep” and that’s fine. It’s very difficult to suggest that we’re not looking at another squash compared to what we witness last season.
Some are attributing Golden State’s fourth appearance in the Finals to luck, and that’s fair given that the Rockets went 0-for-27 from beyond the arc in an historically abysmal shooting performance that came at the worst possible time. I’ll agree that some of that is just pure, bad luck and the Rockets faced quite a bit of that with some iffy foul calls and the loss of CP3.
But then again, this is the Houston Rockets we’re talking about. They’re not closers and never really have been. That’s why Chris Paul was brought in, and hopefully stays. You can easily make the argument that this series has a different ending if Paul doesn’t rip his hamstring to shreds. However, you can just as easily say that the Warriors were never going to lose or that they had to overcome the loss of Andre Igoudala. “What if” arguments are stupid in that way.
2018 NBA Finals Schedule
Game 1 – Cleveland at Golden State -12.0 (Thu, May 31st)
Game 2 – Cleveland at Golden State (Sun, June 3rd)
Game 3 – Golden State at Cleveland (Wed, June 6th)
Game 4 – Golden State at Cleveland (Fri, June 8th)
Game 5 – Cleveland at Golden State (Mon, June 11th)
Game 6 – Golden State at Cleveland (Thu, June 14th)
Game 7 – Cleveland at Golden State (Sun, June 17th)
The fact remains that Golden State and Cleveland are back at the pinnacle, and no matter how bored you are with these two consistently clashing, it’s a cool moment to enjoy as a fan. Four straight times? That’s never happened before, though the Celtics-Lakers met four times in five years in the 1960’s.
Wrinkles abound in this series. LeBron has seriously never looked better, but his supporting cast hasn’t looked this bad since 2007. Kevin Love is hurt and still middling his way through the concussion protocol. Outside of sweeping a Toronto Raptors team that was crippled by PSL (post-season LeBron) disorder, the Pacers and Celtics pushed Cleveland to seven games. Both nearly won it.
Nothing that Cleveland has dealt with in the playoffs is on the level of the Golden State Warriors, but this particular defending champion looks…tired. They’re most certainly the better team in the 2018 NBA Finals. But they don’t have that killer instinct that they rampaged the playoffs with last year while going 16-1 SU in 17 games. Everybody’s stolen at least a game from them.
Trying to convince yourself that Cleveland can win this series feels like a losing battle. Even the Rockets were being pegged as +7.5 road dogs in the Western Conference Finals, and that was with Chris Paul in the fold. Cleveland is already a +12 point dog in Game 1 and even that feels sort of generous.
Igoudala being injured and the Warriors not really having any semblance of low-post defence seems inconsequential given how much shooting they have. I mean, even Nick Young helped contribute in a minute, momentum changing way that had a tangible impact. The only thing that could really pave the way for Cleveland being competitive in this series is an injury and that seems immensely implausible.
The distance between Cleveland and Golden State, even with all the little things that seem to ding up the Warriors, is negated simply by the lack of Kyrie Irving on the Cavaliers. If the Cavs couldn’t even touch the Warriors last year when they had him, why would you believe that they could this year with a team that is older, slower, less dynamic and just struggled against a categorically awful Eastern Conference side of the bracket.
The oddsmakers don’t. You probably shouldn’t either.
That doesn’t means you shouldn’t watch it. At the very least, the lines on this series are intriguing, and the Warriors have been softer on the “crushing opponents” side of things than years past. If Cleveland has any value in this series, it’s as a road dog because we all already know how this series is going to end.