Golden State Opens as Favorite to Win Second NBA Title in Three Years
Scott Morris | May 26, 2017
The NBA Finals have finally arrived. After 82 regular season games and three rounds of best of seven series’, the two NBA teams left standing will start the 2017 NBA Finals on Thursday June 1.
It is no surprise that the two teams meeting in the NBA Finals are the defending NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors winners of the 2015 NBA Finals. This is the third consecutive season the two teams have met in the NBA Finals.
Golden State reached the NBA Finals with a four-game sweep of the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Western Conference Finals. The Warriors are 12-0 straight up and 8-4 against the spread in their 12 postseason games this year. Nine of the 12 playoff games have cashed OVER this season.
The defending champion Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics in five games to win the Eastern Conference and have lost just one game in reaching the Finals. Cleveland is 12-1 SU and 8-4-1 ATS in its 13 postseason game this year. The OVER has cashed in 9 of its 13 games during the playoffs.
Both teams will have the next week to prepare for the Finals as the best of seven series will not start until June 1 in Oakland, California at Oracle Arena.
Plenty of movement in the line is expected between now and tip off of Game 1, but the opening line on many online sportsbooks has Golden State as a home favorite of 7 points for Game 1 with an over/under point total at 225.
For the complete series, sportsbooks favor Golden State. The Warriors opened as 2 to 5 favorites to win the NBA title while the Cavaliers opened at 9 to 4 to win their second consecutive title.
The rest will favor Cleveland as it gives veteran LeBron James time to rest. The Cavaliers will be led by their usual trio of James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The threesome played very well in the team’s 4-1 series win over the Boston Celtics.
Golden State will be well rested as they have had three more days rest than the Cavaliers after sweeping San Antonio earlier this week. The rest will help high scorer Kevin Durant only returned to action a few games before the start of the postseason.
Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the top three scorers for the Warriors.
