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Underdogs Making NBA Finals Odds Interesting

 Betting Odds, NBA Betting
Jun 052012
 
 

The 2012 NBA playoffs have officially become quite interesting. It really looked as though the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs were on a crash course for one another in the NBA Finals, as they were both up 2-0 in their respect conference finals. The Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics could have both been had at some remarkable prices at that point, with OKC being as good as about 6 to 1, and Boston being as high as 50 to 1 at some online sportsbooks. However, the scripts have been flipped at this point, and the situation is a heck of a lot more interesting with a ton of variables.

 

We’ll start in the West, where the Thunder have all of a sudden not just stopped San Antonio’s 20-game winning streak, but they have rolled off three straight victories as well. Thanks to the efforts of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and a lot of the role players like Thabo Sefolosha, Oklahoma City is just one win away from its first NBA Finals. Now, the Thunder are the favorites to win the NBA Finals at +145 at 5Dimes Sportsbook.

 

That leaves the Spurs in some trouble. They are +415 right now to win it all, and it was only about a week ago that they were odds on favorites. All of a sudden, the team looks old, and San Antonio’s role players that were consistently coming up with good efforts are failing when they have to make plays. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker are starting to look like a bit of an old trio against the youthful Thunder. However, if there is a team that you would want to play on with its back in the corner, this would be the team, as there aren’t all that many situations in which San Antonio and its veterans haven’t played in and succeeded in.

 

In the East, the Heat are still the overwhelming favorites. They are the +165 favorites to win it all out of the East, while the Celtics are still easily the longest shots on the board at +1200.

 

We are definitely questioning Miami right now, though. When it has come time to put away games in the clutch, the Heat have struggled at times this year and in the past, and losing Game 4 in Beantown was the perfect example of just that happening. LeBron James didn’t get the final shot off of regulation, and the team went on to score just two points in a very frustrating overtime period. The good news for the Heat is that Chris Bosh is expected to be back in the fold soon, potentially as early as Tuesday night’s Game 5.

 

Head Coach Doc Rivers warned the rest of the world following the win in Game 4 of this series that his Celtics haven’t played their best basketball yet, and they haven’t put together a complete 48 minute game yet. If that really is the case, and the C’s do find some more to give, they might be the steal of the moment on the NBA Finals betting lines at 12 to 1. Rajon Rondo is almost certainly the MVP of the playoffs, and there is no denying that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett still have game to get the job done.

 

The NBA Finals could be set as soon as Thursday. Miami will host Boston on Tuesday night in Game 5, and whichever team takes that clash could close out the series and take the Eastern Conference crown on Thursday night back at the TD Garden. If there is a Game 7, it will take place at American Airlines Arena on Saturday night.

 

Out West, Oklahoma City will be hosting the Spurs for Game 6 on Wednesday. Should San Antonio come on the road and win the game, it will earn a trip back to the AT&T Center, where it would play the do-or-die Game 7 against the Thunder on Friday.

2012 Western Conference Finals Series Preview

 Betting Odds, NBA Betting
May 242012
 
 

The 2012 NBA playoffs will get their third round underway on Sunday in the Lone Star State, where the much anticipated series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs will get underway. Don’t miss our 2012 Western Conference Finals series NBA betting preview!

 

Bookmaker Sportsbook currently has the Spurs listed as the -210 favorites to move on to the NBA Finals, and it is hard to argue with that point. We know that the Thunder were one of the best teams in the NBA all season long, but it is hard to dispute the run that San Antonio went on at the end of the year. The team closed out the season by winning its final 10 games to lock up the No. 1 seed in the West, and now, it is 18-0 SU and 15-2-1 ATS in its last 18 games including the postseason.

 

The Spurs really haven’t broken a sweat in the playoffs yet either. They have gotten their star-like performances from Tony Parker and Tim Duncan for sure. Parker is averaging 19.1 points, 7.1 assists, and 3.4 boards per game, while Duncan is good for 17.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. For the rest of the club though, no one has averaged more than 11.2 points per game or 26 minutes per game. That being said, there are seven other contributors that are good for at least 5.6 points per game, and it is that depth that is really causing all sorts of problems for other teams.

 

And then there are the Thunder, who have been looked at for the last few years as the up and coming team in the league. They took their first major stride two years ago when they took the Los Angeles Lakers to six games in the first round of the playoffs, and they took a second big time step last year when they made it to the Western Conference Finals before being taken out by the Dallas Mavericks.

 

This year though, matters have been a lot different for Oklahoma City in the playoffs. There have been no gifts in terms of what teams the Thunder have had to face. They took care of the Mavs, the defending NBA champs in a sweep, and then the finished off the Lakers in five games. Oklahoma City has had its share of blowouts. However, it has also figured out how to win the close games as well.

 

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden are going to do the mass majority of the scoring in this series for sure, as the three combined to average nearly 70 points per game between them in the first nine games here in the playoffs. Durant is averaging almost 41 minutes per game as well, and he rarely takes a seat on the bench. The Thunder though, are getting great contributions from the likes of Serge Ibaka, Derek Fisher, and Kendrick Perkins, all of which are doing just enough on both sides of the court to keep this team rolling.

 

The Spurs and Thunder have never met before in the playoffs (since Oklahoma City moved from Seattle). This year in the regular season, there were three clashes. Oklahoma City took the first, 108-96 at home in January, but the Spurs won 107-96 at the AT&T Center in February and 114-105 in the Sooner State in March.

 

Game 1 of this best-of-seven series starts on Sunday, May 27th, and the series will be played every other day, with a possible Game 7 taking place on Friday, June 8th.

NBA Betting Notebook: San Antonio Spurs Hope To Make Short Work Of Los Angeles Clippers

 Betting Odds, NBA Betting
May 152012
 
 

Normally speaking, about the only sports teams that are being talked about in Tinseltown this time of year are the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Los Angeles Lakers. This time though, the Los Angeles Kings are on the verge of the Stanley Cup, and the Los Angeles Clippers – yes, you read that correctly – the Los Angeles Clippers are amongst the last eight teams standing in the NBA playoffs. The Clips are set to begin what figures to be a brutally tough series against the top team in the Western Conference though, the San Antonio Spurs.

 

The Spurs have been off for quite some time, as they finished off the Utah Jazz in a sweep in the first round of the playoffs. Game 1 will be the first game that San Antonio has played since May 7th, giving it a full week off before having to get back on the hardwood. Meanwhile, the Clippers only just finished up their series with the Memphis Grizzlies on the road on Mother’s Day, and are right back at it.

 

Head Coach Vinny Del Negro deserves a ton of credit for getting his team to fight back in Game 7 at the FedEx Forum. The Clips had every single excuse to lay down. Blake Griffin was hurting. Chris Paul was hurting. The game was on the road in a horrible environment for a road team. LA had also lost two straight games in this series, including one at Staples Center, and it just didn’t feel anything like the better team in the series.

 

But yet, the mighty Clippers got the job done to get into the second round of the playoffs, and Del Negro has gone from scapegoat to hero. Even getting swept in this series should keep him safe, as the much beleaguered head coach of the team has done enough in our eyes to warrant keeping his job.

 

Of course, it all comes down to CP3 and Griffin for the Clips. If they aren’t combining for at least 40 points, the rest of the offense is going to find some troubles taking care of business. That’s why Los Angeles might be in so much trouble in this series. The Spurs can count on a plethora of different players to get the job done, as Head Coach Gregg Popovich uses all 13 men that he has at his disposal virtually every single night.

 

Only Patrick Mills and Tiago Splitter didn’t get into all four games of the first series against the Jazz. Tony Parker led the way with 21.0 points and 6.5 assists per game, while Tim Duncan averaged 14.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Aside from that, no one did better than the 10.0 points per game of Stephen Jackson, but he was one of the six players aside from Duncan and Parker that averaged at least 7.0 points per game.

 

This series figures to be a brutal one for the Clippers, especially with the back-to-back games that are going to take place at Staples Center over the course of the weekend. Still, at 26-10 this year at home, the Clips are tough to beat at that venue, though matters are going to be even harder against a San Antonio team that is 30-5 thus far at the AT&T Center this year.

 

In the regular season, the Spurs took two out of three games. The Clippers have to feel like they have a bit of an advantage, knowing that they won by a dozen the last time these two teams played at the AT&T Center, though we know that it is going to be tough to get another win on the road.

 

5Dimes Sportsbook understandably has the Spurs as tremendous -2200 favorites on the NBA playoff series lines. The Clippers are lined at +1350 to pull off the upset, though few are expecting to see them win more than maybe a game or two in this series.