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Cavaliers vs. Warriors NBA Finals Odds: Series and Game 1 Betting Odds Revealed
May 29, 2018
The Golden State Warriors are opening as heavy favorites to repeat as NBA champions in the 2018 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
OddsShark provided the numbers for both Game 1 on Thursday night at Oracle Arena and the Finals as a whole:
According to OddsShark, the Warriors' title odds have moved all the way to -1100 (bet $1,100 to win $100). According to ESPN's David Payne Purdum, the Cavaliers are the biggest NBA Finals underdogs since at least 2002.
That the Cavaliers are underdogs is a surprise to no one. Golden State beat Cleveland in five games in last year's Finals, and the Cavs are without Kyrie Irving this time around.
The Eastern Conference champions went through the ringer just to get past the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics, who are promising teams but are clearly below the level of the Warriors.
More worrisome, LeBron James is averaging 41.3 minutes per game in the postseason. The four-time MVP was clearly fatigued at times during the conference finals, and Cleveland will need even more from him to pull off an upset in the NBA Finals.
It's hard to see how the Cavs will have an answer for Kevin Durant, when they didn't in the Finals a year ago and nobody has throughout this year's playoffs.
Durant was the 2017 Finals MVP after averaging 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Through the first three rounds of the postseason in 2018, he's putting up 29.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists a game.
Although James is one of the greatest players in NBA history, he can only do so much to counteract Golden State's star-studded roster, Durant in particular.