The high-flying Golden State Warriors have won the NBA Championship three times in the last five years. Can they make it three in a row this year?
Some four months from the Championship final the New Jersey sportsbooks already seem to be pretty sure they can.
Right now Warriors are their hot favorites to win both the Western Conference final and the big NBA Championship itself.
Most of the NJ sportsbooks have them somewhere between FanDuel’s -225 and William Hill’s -250 to win the NBA title.
The Toronto Raptors are a distant second at -900 in FanDuel’s book followed by the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers at +1200, the Houston Rockets at +1300 and the Boston Celtics at +1400
Cavaliers out of the picture
Warriors’ opponents in their last four finals have been Cleveland Cavaliers who were able to win in 2015-2016. It says something about how far Cavaliers have fallen that William Hill’s odds on them winning were +999900. FanDuel didn’t even bother to list the Cavs.
The Warriors, who’ll once more be spearheaded by Stephen Curry, are even stronger favorites to win the Western Conference final. The odds on them triumphing for the fourth year in a row were -310.
The Rockets are a fair way behind them at +900 and the Oklahoma City Thunder even further back at +1400.
FanDuel’s Eastern Conference favorites, meanwhile, are the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors both at +220. Philadelphia is close behind on +300.
It is somewhat ironic then that for the NBA Championship the Raptors are the lone second favorites behind the Warriors. The Bucks, in this case, are tied in third place with Philadelphia at +1200.
MVP of the year
MVP of the Year is another Futures bet you might want to know about as the NBA season heads towards its June climax.
Stephen Curry won the award in the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons. He continues to be a class player and is playing for the likely champions – but it might not be enough.
James Hardin, who won the award last season, has been in stunning form again this season. The Houston point guard been breaking all kinds of scoring records and at -120 is the clear favorite.
His closest rival is not Curry. It’s the seven-foot Nigerian Greek Giannis Antetokounmp of the Milwaukee Bucks. The towering forward/guard is another who’s been having an exceptional year and at one stage was the early MVP favorite. Right now you can get him for +100.
There is quite a gap after the two front runners, but the man in third place with odds of +700 is still not Curry. It’s Paul George, the Oklahoma City Thunder small forward.
Curry, a point guard, is some way further down the line in 4th place at +2000.
Following are the latest Futures betting odds for the National Basketball Association Championship final in June. Below them are FanDuel’s odds for the Eastern and Western Conference finals and William Hill’s for MVP of 2018-2019
WINNER OF NBA (2018/2019)
Golden State Warriors -225
Toronto Raptors +900
Milwaukee Bucks +1200
Philadelphia 76ers +1200
Houston Rockets +1300
Boston Celtics +1400
Eastern Conference winners
Milwaukee Bucks +220
Toronto Raptors +220
Philadelphia 76ers +300
Boston Celtics +350
Western Conference winners
Golden State Warriors -310
Houston Rockets +900
Oklahoma City Thunder +1400
Denver Nuggets +1800
NBA MVP for 2018-2019
James Harden -120
Giannis Antetokounmpo +100
Paul George +700
Stephen Curry +2000
Joel Embiid +2500
Nikola Jokic +5000
