The NBA Playoffs moves on to the conference finals. After some series went clean sweeps and other went deep, there is a lot to break down before the next round gets started. We dug through all the noise to find you the best three spots to play before we get too deep in the conference ginals.
Come check out what we’ve got cooked up or NBA futures this round.
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NBA Playoff Futures – Conference Finals
Oklahoma City Thunder -1.5 Games (-120)
As we move into the third series of the playoffs, you might find something missing for the Thunder at this point. That thing is a loss. Over the first two series, they’ve played eight games. All of those have been wins and not by small margins. The average margin of victory for their entire postseason run sits at 16.6 points. They aren’t just winning, they are running teams off the court.
On the other hand, this line is likely so close due to how well San Antinio looked against them this year. In the five games that they played, the Thunder lost four of them. However, the motivation – particularly for a #1-seed – is low during the regular season. They have little incentive to kill themselves to win those game. We even saw them rest starters in a few as well. With everything on the line and a full compliment of players, I expect to see them rolling.
With a line like this, we can give the Spurs a pair of games. That should be a fairly safe play.
Eastern Conference Winner – Cleveland Cavaliers (+215)
While we’re going with the team that’s rolling in the West, I like the team that had to dip deep in the East. If you caught my Conference Semifinals preview, you would have seen that I had this same play at +270. Although we’ve lost a little of that value with them moving on to this round, we’re still right about at that same number.
I like how they matchup with the Knicks for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think they’re going to win the battle on the boards. The Cavaliers are one of the only teams in the league that run two legitimate, old-school big men. Both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley can be seen down under the hoop getting things done. I think it’s going to be hard for the likes of Josh Hart and OG Anunoby to get too involved in that realm. You can see that in the regular season data with Hart getting just 4.0 rebounds per game against Cleveland and Anunoby putting up 6.3.
The last reason I like the Cavaliers here is the diversity in the scoring. You have a general idea of where the rock needs to be in this Knicks offense and they can gameplan to take that away. The Cavaliers seem to find a different lead scorer every time out and there seems to be no concern about who it is. And that leads me to my next point…
Leading Scorer in ECF – James Harden (+2500)
Okay, so I understand that his scoring can be finicky. He has a history of being a touch less reliable in the postseason. However, he always has the chance to blow up for a big game. He went for 22 or more in four of the seven games last series. That includes a 30-point performance in Game 5. Towards the end of the series, he really started to let them fly from beyond the arc. If that is a trend we can rely on, this longshot future is in play.
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