NBA Finals Who’s Hot and Who’s Not – June 5
2 min read
There is only one NBA game in town right now and it is pretty clear which team is hot and which one is not heading into Wednesday’s Game 3 matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers in this season’s best-of-seven NBA Finals. BetAnySports has opened Golden State as a three-point road favorite for the 9 p.m. (ET) tip at Quicken Loans Arena and the total has been set at 225.5 points.
The first two games of this much anticipated rubber match have not even been close with the Warriors winning both by a combined 41 points to easily cover as 7.5-point favorites in the series opener before covering a nine-point spread in Sunday’s 132-113 victory in Game 2. Bettors riding the hot hand should take note that Golden State has now covered against the spread in its last five playoffs games this year and going back to the regular season, it has gone a perfect 11-0 ATS in its last 11 road games.
Following last season’s epic collapse in the NBA Finals after taking a commanding 3-1 series lead, the Warriors went out and added Kevin Durant to a roster that already included Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. That move has already paid some big dividends in the third meeting between these two NBA powers in the championship series over the past three seasons. He led all scorers in Game 1 with 38 points as Golden State rolled to a 113-91 victory. Durant connected on 13 of his 22 shots from the field in Sunday’s Game 2 to set the pace with a game-high 33 points. Curry was also a major factor in Sunday’s 19-point win with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
Golden State shot 50.8 percent from the field through its first three playoff series and while that number dropped to 42.5 percent in the series opener it connected on 51.7 percent of its shots in Game 2 while going 18-for-43 from three-point range. Cleveland also shot the ball lights out in its opening three rounds (50.3 percent) but it hit 34.9 percent of its shots in Game 1 before improving to 45 percent in Sunday’s loss. LeBron James led his team in scoring in both of those games with 57 combined points while also adding 26 rebounds and 22 assists.
