NBA Conference Finals Series prices

[Willie99]

Congrats Boston fans. You guys are so freakin' spoiled when it comes to your professional teams...

WTF, the C's haven't won since 2008, it's time

And for me, not even UConn has won anything in a while, I'm getting hungry

But in all seriousness, point well taken, we are pretty damn lucky. I say this all the time, and I don't mind spreading a little joy. Like when we let the Eagles win the SB

 

[PatsFan1283]

Congrats Boston fans. You guys are so freakin' spoiled when it comes to your professional teams...

How spoiled can you be when you gotta sweat a -170 series price where the line has adjusted and you clearly have the best of it until the very bitter end? If Butler hits that 3, it is the biggest choke job in NBA history that I can recall, given stakes/situation. They were up 98-89 and the ball with 1:50 left.

Weird situation for the Heat +150 people, on one hand they could say the series came down to 1 shot from the Heat best player so they got their money in good. But on the other hand, deep down that is lying to themselves. The lines opened +1-1.5 @Heat the first two games (sans Horford/Smart late rule out) and then by the time game 5 rolled around the Celts were a whopping -3.5 on the road, -3 in game 7. Who is -3.5 and 3 on the road in game 5s and 7s? Basically the books pricing them as a bigger fav than even the Warriors vs the Grizzlies. That is quite the adjustment.

So you basically got a lot of noise but 1 team was clearly superior......If a team is 8.5 and 3 on the road then it isn't a "50/50" series as some proclaimed. Or perhaps it is if you wanna hide behind small sample results. Kinda interesting how it unfolds.

 

[CHOPTALK]

Who would have thought he would lose to cilic of all people

 

[CHOPTALK]

Cilic crushing him

 

[Dr.Love]

but 1 team was clearly superior

No doubt about it. All trolling aside (for now), Boston vs Golden State is the best matchup for the Finals. I don't know if Boston is consistent enough to beat the Warriors 4 out of 7 times though. Tatum seems to just disappear from time to time. He's gonna need to average around 30ppg IMO if the Celtics are to win this thing.

Should be a fun and interesting series. Golden State in 6 is my best guess.

 

[PatsFan1283]

No doubt about it. All trolling aside (for now), Boston vs Golden State is the best matchup for the Finals. I don't know if Boston is consistent enough to beat the Warriors 4 out of 7 times though. Tatum seems to just disappear from time to time. He's gonna need to average around 30ppg IMO if the Celtics are to win this thing.

Should be a fun and interesting series. Golden State in 6 is my best guess.

I don't really like Celts chances much either vs the line, think their defense will hold up pretty well vs GS. Their offense is more of an issue. And R Williams is back in the tank with the knee issues (tbf way more valuable vs Heat than GS matchup wise since Heat need to get so much at the rim) but if I bet GS it'll probably just be smaller bet on Curry to win MVP +110 vs laying -150, think that gap is way off because of prior results.

Curry is winning MVP a lot more than around 3/4 times if GS wins imo. This isn't 2016-2019 Klay and I don't see GS overwhelming so much that you get a situation where someone a little random wins (Kawhi '14 when he was 20-1)

I think Celts were clearly the best team in the East with Middleton dead, but my opinion they should roll the Heat had a lot more to do with the Heat. They got on the right side of the bracket, have a prior pedigree making finals a few years back but this is not the type of team you see offensively at this level of b-ball. I'm not gonna say the Nets are better than them, but I think they could've easily lost a 1 v 8 to the Nets if the seeding shook out differently. And I think this series vs the Celts could've easily shook out differently had Celts had Smart/Horford game 1.

But yes, Celts late game issues are obviously real. Lacking a point guard to get the offense organized (for his limitations, Lowry gave the Heat a lot with this) definitely dooms them late game. Lost gm 3 close vs Bucks, blew gm 5 in a meltdown, lost close gm 3/6 vs Heat at home, almost blew gm 7 in spectacular unprecedented fashion. That isn't variance and I don't think the Heat are better than GS defensively.

 

[Willie99]

I think the Heat are much better than the Warriors on the defensive side of the ball. Always physical, always reaching, usually multiple players trying to strip you, they play to turn you over which is a necessity for them.

I think the Warriors will play defense closer to the Nets than either the Heat or the Bucks

I think we're going to see contrasting styles

 

[Dr.Love]

think their defense will hold up pretty well vs GS. Their offense is more of an issue.

I think I'm going to blindly bet the under every game in this series (to start at least). I know the Warriors can light it up but Boston's defense is legit. Probably stay away from sides and just roll with my Golden State +150 I bought when PHX was eliminated. I'll be in Vegas for Games 1 and 2 so it will be fun to go prop hunting for the first 2 games while I'm there.

 

[Michelangelo]

I think the Heat are much better than the Warriors on the defensive side of the ball. Always physical, always reaching, usually multiple players trying to strip you, they play to turn you over which is a necessity for them.

I think the Warriors will play defense closer to the Nets than either the Heat or the Bucks

I think we're going to see contrasting styles

This.

As for our point guard, part of the rason the Celts pulled it together in late January is because Marcus Smart embraced the PG position as a ball distributor primarily. But he's reverted back to the old Marcus too often in these Playoffs. And I have a theory as to why that is. Because of the emergence of Derrick White as a scorer. I don't think that Marcus wants to see the point guard who replaces him outshining him in the scoring dept.
When the Celts tied the Heat 99-99 with about two minutes to go after chasing them the whole game, they got a defensive stop and had a chance to controlthe game for the first time. But Marcus Smart dribbled the ball up to the circle, stood there for the whole clock and launched up a three which of course misswed. Miami took advantage of the reprieve and the Celts got eaten up late. Marcus needs to get back to distributing the ball, not dreaming of hero ball. And the Cs have a bad habit of launching perimiter shots when they have big leads. They should be taking it to the basket and creating foul situations. Marcus needs to reward movement without the ball inside the circle. If they d that the Cs can win this series.

I do think the Cs have the better D. Golden State had better be prepared. They are perimiter shooters which somewhat negates the C defense. But only somewhat.

The Celtics need to shed their free throw disease too. They've gotten away with stinking from the stripe. But they are gonna need their full game here.

Gonna be fun.

 

[PatsFan1283]

Warriors had the #1 D rating in the league tied with Celts and that was playing without Green for 36 games.

If you think they're gonna play defense like the Nets, you're probably gonna be surprised

If true, I see it as an easy series though. Celts D is way too good for them to be scoring with ease against anyone

 

[PatsFan1283]

Warriors D is a little different than most teams in that if they’re playing really well, they won’t just keep trying to matchup defensively. They recalibrate and see if they can get away with the 3 guard lineup with Jordan Poole. Poole is not only their worst defensive player, but 1 of the worst in the entire playoffs.

So they’re never really prioritizing shutting teams down, but if they can get by with him because the other guys are holding up then their offense is just super turbocharged.

Celts have done a pretty good job of picking on sieves like that in the playoffs (other Curry, Kyrie, G Allen, herro) so would be big win if they can really compromise him.

that’s one thing I don’t like about GS is it isn’t entirely clear who their 5th guy should be in their best lineup and in a competitive series against a top tier team, not the easiest trial and error thing to figure out on the fly….Poole, looney, porter, payton all got some limitations

 

[crudebar]

Amazing how much better a thread becomes if you remove a twat.

Good read fellas.

 

[StevieRay]

Kerr is such a beta bitch.

Just got Covid. Can't catch it. Can't spread it. And he's wearing his bitch mask anyway like a good little boy.

F-ing libtard bitch.

Big shout out to the last people still hanging in there saving my life by wearing masks alone in your cars.