Odds Still Favor Warriors-Cavs Matchup
Only six teams remain in the 2017 NBA Playoffs after the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors advanced to the conference finals this week after series sweeps against the Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz, respectively.
Still battling for spots in the conference finals are the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards. Both the Rockets-Spurs and the Celtics-Wizards are knotted at 2-2 in their best-of-seven series.
Read: Wall, Wizards Might Be Too Much For Celtics
The Warriors have been the favorites since the end of last year's finals. According to betting website VegasInsider.com, Golden State is currently a 1/3 favorite to win the title and 1/13 favorite to come out of the West.
The Cavs are clearly the No. 2 team, with 5/2 odds to win the title and 1/7 favorites to advance out of the East.
Should the Cavs and Spurs both advance to the finals, it would be the third consecutive year the two teams played for the title. In 2015, the Warriors won in six games, while the Cavs won in seven games in 2016.
Before the start of the season, NBA.com listed finals predictions from 15 experts. Four experts predicted the Cavs would win the title, while 11 picked the Warriors. All 15 picked the Cavs to come out of the East, while 13 picked the Warriors. Former NBA star Isiah Thomas picked the Spurs to win the West and NBA.com writer Ian Thomsen picked the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Warriors finished with the best record (67-15) in the NBA, so they will have home-court advantage for the entire playoffs.
The Spurs remain in the hunt at 15/1 odds to win the title and at 10/1 odds to come out of the West. San Antonio's chances took a hit after it was announced Thursday that veteran point guard Tony Parker would miss the rest of the playoffs with a ruptured left quadriceps tendon. Parker, 34, is expected to be out at least eight months.
Prior to Parker’s injury, the Spurs had 9/1 odds to win the title. In the offseason, the Spurs had 6/1 odds.
The Spurs are followed by the Rockets (30/1), Celtics (40/1) and Wizards (60/1).
The Spurs and Rockets meet on Tuesday night at the AT&T Center in Game 5 at 8:00 p.m. Game 6 will be in Houston on Thursday, and if the series goes to seven games, it will shift back to San Antonio on Sunday.
The Celtics host the Wizards in Game 5 on Wednesday night at TD Garden with Game 6 on Friday at the Verizon Center. If there is a Game 7 it will be in Boston on Monday.
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