
A Look at the NBA Finals Odds
It’s easy to get bogged down in all of the odds surrounding a major sporting event, like the NBA Finals.
It doesn’t help that we’ve had a week to break down what the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics matchup will look like.
Boston is unsurprisingly a -210 favorite to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Celtics have been cast in the favorite role for a good chunk of the NBA season. Dallas is +175 to claim the title.
Jayson Tatum is -115 to win the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Luka Doncic is second on that list at +205.
MVP and series price are usually the two most popular bets to look at for the start of any championship series/game.
While Tatum and Doncic will likely dominate most of the headlines, it’s at least worth looking at Kyrie Irving (+2200) and Kristaps Porzingis (+3500) in the MVP race.
There’s the obvious factor that both players are facing their former teams. Irving is averaging six points fewer per game in the postseason than Doncic, so it will be hard for him to leapfrog Doncic in the MVP race unless he’s averaging close to 30. It’s worth noting that Irving’s played in an NBA Finals before, so maybe he’s more used to the moment. There’s also the caveat of what Boston’s defensive matchup will look like as well. Doncic could struggle if Jrue Holiday and Derrick White smother him in coverage.
Porzingis is Boston’s X-factor. He is the most notable big man in the series and scored 24 points against Dallas in March in the only regular-season meeting we can take data from since the first matchup occurred before the Mavericks’ trade deadline reconfiguration.
I think the other way to approach Porzingis is to take him as the series rebound leader. He averaged just a rebound less per game that Tatum in the regular season. Doncic is Dallas’ leading rebounder in the postseason, and if he is further away from the rim because of Porzingis’ presence, it could open up more rebounding possibilities for Porzingis.
Most threes in the series is the other longshot prop I would look into. Doncic is even money as the favorite in this category, but Irving, P.J. Washington and Derrick White are all intriguing options since they all average over two three-pointers per game in the postseason.
As for the series as a whole, I would look into buying the juice on the Over 5.5 games prop at -165. Five of the last six NBA Finals have gone at least six games. Nine of the last 14 NBA Finals dating back to 2010 have gone six and there’s been only one sweep in that span.
Both teams are talented enough to win multiple games and I do think we’ll get that outcome no matter which team wins the championship.
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