NBA Championship 2019 Odds: Warriors, Bucks Enter Playoffs as Favorites
Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the rest of the Golden State Warriors are the prohibitive favorite to capture the 2019 NBA championship with the playoffs set to begin Saturday.
Here's a look at the updated betting lines for all 16 teams released Friday, which show the Dubs at -200 odds (bet $200 to win $100) followed by the Milwaukee Bucks (+450), Houston Rockets (+500) and Toronto Raptors (+1,000):
The Bucks own home-court advantage throughout the NBA postseason after posting a league-best 60-22 record to earn the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Their mark was two games better than the Raptors and three ahead of the Western Conference-leading Warriors.
Golden State is the NBA's two-time defending champion and features perhaps the most star-studded roster the league has ever seen with a starting lineup of Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins, not to mention sixth man Andre Iguodala.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told Ron Kroichick of the San Francisco Chronicle he picked his spots for criticism carefully during the regular season so the All-Star-laden roster will know he's serious if he challenges them in a certain area during the playoffs.
"For certain games, certain stretches, it's important for me to figure out, 'Do I accept this for now or do I challenge them?'" he said. "I think you have to pace your team accordingly—to understand when to give them space without giving them an excuse, and when to push their buttons a little bit. ... I've been much more lenient this year, trying to guide us through the rocky road."
Meanwhile, Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo told Bill DiFilippo of Dime Magazine in February the team was still learning how to become a legitimate title contender.
"It's just the opposite, teams are trying to take us down," he said. "At the end of the day, we have to achieve our goals. Yes, do we have to change our mentality? We do. Our goal is to win the championship and play at a championship level."
The oddsmakers have installed the Warriors as the clear favorite and FiveThirtyEight agrees, listing the Dubs at 59 percent to win a third consecutive championship. The Raptors (17 percent) and Bucks (15 percent) are a distant second and third.
Not every analysis system is all aboard the Golden State bandwagon, though. ESPN's Basketball Power Index projects Milwaukee as the team to beat (35.4 percent title odds) ahead of Golden State (20.7 percent) and Toronto (16.9 percent) heading into the postseason.
The playoffs kick off Saturday with four games beginning with the Brooklyn Nets visiting the Philadelphia 76ers at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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