Oddsmakers have instead focused on the fact that the Warriors’ season was riddled with injuries to stars like Stephen Curry and may believe that the team otherwise suffered from boredom from the grind of another long regular season. On the other hand, Golden State was a dismal 34-47-1 ATS, no surprise given they won 10 games fewer than the initial betting line set at 68.5 wins. The Rockets only went 41-40-1 against-the-spread (ATS) this season, a surprisingly low cover rate for a team that blew its projected win total of 55.5 wins out of the water. While a number of complex factors can influence a betting line, such as public perception and potential futures liabilities a sportsbook might face if a certain team wins the championship, it is clear that the bookmakers put very little stock in both the historic regular season record of the Rockets and the disappointing (by Golden State standards) regular season for the Warriors. As noted above, the Westgate SuperBook opened the Warriors as relatively heavy road favorites. Las Vegas Books: Rockets Not Ready for Lift OffĪnd with all of the proverbial boxes checked, one would generally assume that the Rockets would be the prohibitive favorites to win the NBA championship. Through the playoffs, the Rockets have not been held to under 100 points and boast an average margin of victory of 14.75 points, largely casting aside the well-earned reputation of past Rockets teams that didn’t see merit in crossing onto to the defensive end of the court. With the offseason addition of Chris Paul and the emergence of Clint Capela as a defensive presence at center, the Rockets have steamrolled through the first two rounds of the playoffs over the “just happy to be there” Minnesota Timberwolves and injury-depleted Utah Jazz. Harden led the league in points per game (30.4 ppg) and finished fourth in assists (8.8 apg). On an individual basis, James Harden is a virtual lock to win his first league MVP award after posting career best numbers in numerous categories. As an item to consider in our analysis, 12 of the 17 teams with a better regular season (70.5%) ultimately went on to win the NBA championship that season. In the over 60-year history of the NBA, only 17 teams playing a full 82 game schedule have finished with a better regular season record than the 65-17 mark achieved by the Rockets this season. NBA Western Conference Finals Preview, Pick: The Rockets’ Red Glare Jay Kornegay, Vice President of Race & Sports Operations at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook is excited about the action from the Rockets-Warriors matchup and told Sports Handle that the series will “probably produce the biggest handle outside another Cavaliers-Warriors final.” Let’s drill down into this highly anticipated matchup. As an added bonus, the Rockets won the regular season series 2-1 over the Warriors, including an epic 122-121 Rockets win on opening night at Golden State with the teams splitting two later games played in Houston. The opening betting line, offering the Rockets as a plus-money underdog, appears on its face to offer good amount of value for a team that not only won 65 games during the regular season but also has home court advantage in the series. On paper, the Rockets-Warriors matchup looks to the be a clash of the titans that NBA fans haven’t been treated to in decades. Still, oddsmakers at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook have opened with the Warriors as a -185 betting favorite (implied probability of about 65%) in the Western Conference finals, with the Rockets a +155 underdog (implied probability of about 39%). The Rockets also won the regular season series over the Warriors, including a win at Golden State on the opening night of the season. 2-seeded Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, which begin on Monday, May 14. 1-seeded Rockets posted a league-best 65-17 regular season mark and have home court advantage over the No. The 2017-2018 Houston Rockets are not just good – they are positioned favorably in a historical context to advance to and win the NBA Finals.
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