NBA Playoffs 2017: Wednesday Vegas Odds, Schedule and Predictions
Like many outside of the greater Boston area, oddsmakers don't feel like Wednesday's Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics will be too unpredictable.
It's not hard to see why—LeBron James and the Cavaliers didn't just willingly gift Boston the No. 1 seed, they went undefeated in the playoffs after doing so.
It's not often a top seed in a conference enters a series as an underdog, yet oddsmakers hit Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics with the label for Wednesday's affair even though it goes down at TD Garden.
Here's a look at Wednesday's schedule:
| Cleveland (-3) at Boston | 1 | 8:30 p.m. | TNT | TNTOvertime |
The Celtics didn't do themselves any favors after seeing the top seed fall in their laps. Thomas and the rest looked like they were one Rajon Rondo thumb injury from losing in the opener to the eighth-seeded Chicago Bulls, falling down 0-2 before the injury altered the series.
Boston then turned around and needed a Game 7 to finish off the Washington Wizards, losing three games on the road and at times getting bullied by a team with bigs willing to bang on the boards.
As for the Cavaliers? They've played eight games since April 15.
To suggest the Cavaliers chose the easier road by playing the seeding game is silly. Cleveland swiftly dismissed a game Indiana team featuring Paul George, then turned around and laughed Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan out of their own building, sending the Toronto Raptors into a state of possible rebuilding with the former heading to free agency.
Over the eight games, James sits on averages of 34.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, with Kyrie Irving coming in at 23.8 points and 5.8 assists. As a whole, the Cavaliers are shooting 49 percent from the floor and 43.4 percent from deep.
Did anyone mention the Cavaliers are well rested? Positives aside, as onlookers should know by now, this veteran squad isn't going to overlook the upstart Celtics.
"At the end of the day, the Celtics are our next opponent and ... they're a worthy opponent," James said, according to Stats LLC (via ESPN.com). "We have to game plan every game; we have to game plan for what they bring to the table. And when we have to mentally focus on our challenges that we have every game."
James is correct to take the threat of the Celtics seriously while disregarding most of the negative chatter. Boston rides into the conference finals with plenty of momentum led by Thomas, who averaged 25.4 points and 6.5 assists over 13 games.
The Celtics are quietly a deep team that leans on the depth of its bench to win, hence eight players averaging at least 5.9 points in the playoffs, half of those guys in double digits.
As Jay King of MassLive.com pointed out, the depth of the Celtics was especially impressive while they closed out the Wizards:
In the face of this depth strength, it might be wise to throw aside the underdog chatter. For his part, Thomas isn't buying into it much.
"They didn't give us a chance [against the Wizards]," Thomas said, according to ESPN.com's Ben Fawkes. "They didn't give us a chance when we were down 2-0 to Chicago. ... They don't ever give us a chance, and we just keep going; we don't care about what others say."
While Thomas is correct, when it comes time for bettors to make a decision here, it seems like the only right answer is to roll with the Cavaliers.
This would be different were this, say, next year. But these Celtics, impressive depth or not, aren't experienced enough to take down the well-oiled machine that is the 2017 Cavaliers led by James, whose dominance is so utterly thorough at this point the MVP conversation seems bored and looking for interesting alternatives.
Readers can say what they want about the regular season, but Boston only took one of four games against the Cavaliers. The victory was a 103-99 affair in which James dropped a triple-double, but the Cavaliers only shot 30.3 percent from deep and missed six attempts from the line.
That's what we call an anomaly. James hasn't had any problems with the Celtics, and his Cavaliers are well rested. Look for the Cavaliers to fire a warning shot at the Western Conference on Wednesday night.
Prediction: Cavaliers 118, Celtics 101
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