It is time to place your bets on the NBA playoffs and think through your top picks. Remember that odds can be displayed in many different ways on betting sites, so you need to understand how the site displays odds to bet properly. Livebets.ca gives you a great explanation of how odds are determined at betting sites.
No matter how you might choose to bet, you have to know that any team will likely have to go through the Golden State Warriors in the West or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East.
The Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors have the most talented and well coached team in the league. The combination of Superstars Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, and near superstars Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala have been near unbeatable over the past three years. The only thing that has slowed them down is injury which hit them this year toward the end of the season and was likely the reason they did not finish the year as the #1 see in the west.
This group has working as a unit for three years and have won two of the last three NBA Championships, but there is some chinks in the armor as more teams begin to match their speed and shooting ability.
Who is Their Biggest Challenge?
The biggest challenge to Golden State reaching the Finals for the 4th year in a row has to be the Houston Rockets. James Harden’s team finished as the #1 seed in the west and he is definitely the league’s MVP this year. With the addition of Chris Paul, the Rockets have become everything that coach Mike D’Antonio dreamed. Their fast paced, 3 point happy style runs hot and cold but when it is hot, no one (not even Golden State) can contain them. They also play really good defense. The only questions is whether they can stay hot all the way through the playoffs. If they do, they have the best chance of not only toppling Golden State but anyone the East puts up against them in the finals and that includes LeBron’s Cavaliers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers have had their most up and down season since LeBron returned to the team. They fumbled around the first half of the year and never really got their footing and then blew the team up after the all-star break, bring in four new players and sending four out. This is unprecedented and would have surely meant failure for any other club except LeBron’s Cavaliers. At times they have looked like their old unbeatable selves and at other times throughout the year they looked old and tired. Could this be the first year in seven that LeBron does not make the finals?
Right now the Cavaliers are locked in a back and forth with the Indiana Pacers They are locked in 2-2 with the team getting 4 wins moving forward. LeBron has never lost a first round series and his performance in game 4 shows that he will not go down easily. The sentiment is that if they can get past this first round, they might cruise to the finals.
Who is their Biggest Challenge?
Boston has to be the odds on favorite to take the Cavaliers out. This team has been met with all sorts of injuries including losing its top player for the season, star guard Kyrie Irving, but they hardly missed a beat. Their well-balanced squad might be playing the best ball of anyone right now even though they are having a tough time in their first round match up with a Milwaukee team that sports the league’s next superstar, the Greek Freak.
The playoffs are so exciting this year simply because who will get through is truly up in the air. Both Golden State and Cleveland no longer are the clear cut favorites because other teams have been catching up fast.
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