Injury to Gordon Hayward Makes Cavaliers Path in East Easier

The NFL and college football have played almost half of their regular season schedule, but this week the NBA tipped off its 2017-18 regular season.

The overwhelming favorites to win the NBA title for a second straight season and third in the last four seasons are the Golden State Warriors.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are expected to win the Eastern Conference and battle the Warriors again for the NBA title. Their road to the East title was made a big easier after the Boston Celtics lost star forward Gordon Hayward to a season ending injury after just five minutes of the team’s opening game.

Boston was amongst the favorites for the NBA title opening the season at +1000 and for the Eastern Conference starting off at +225, but those two odds have already been changed to +2000 to win the NBA title and +600 to win the East after the Hayward’s gruesome leg and ankle injury on Tuesday night in a loss to Cleveland.

Starting the season, Cleveland was the Eastern Conference favorite at -200, and now sits at -300 to win its four consecutive conference title and make its fourth straight appearance in the NBA Finals.

The Eastern Conference teams below the Boston Celtics also saw their odds to win the conference title shortened as Washington went to +800 from +1500, Toronto to +1600 from +2000 and Milwaukee to +1600 from +2000, as well.

Hayward was an important acquisition in free agency over the offseason. His acquisition caused Boston to trade Avery Bradley to the Pistons and renounce rights to Kelly Olynyk so the team could fit under the salary cap.

Last season Hayward reached the All-Star game for the first year and averaged 21.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists for the Utah Jazz.

The Celtics opened as 5.5-point chalk at home for their game on Wednesday versus Milwaukee, but the line fell to -3 following Hayward’s injury and Boston lost 108-100 to drop to 0-2.