BUT, this is sports, not chess. A chess player improves, he advances further in a tournament of his general category. This may be the best Wolves team, although with Wally and Troy healthy late last year, that team was probably at least as good as this one is tonight. In any event, they don't HAVE to do anything. There is no "due" principle which holds any water in sports betting, and the opponent always have their own psychology to be considered. The Nuggets took down the Sonics once upon a time, when everyone felt pretty sure they would be playing the Bulls in June that year. That doesn't make a Nugget win tonight MORE or LESS likely...it's just a reminder that the "fix" wasn't in and veterans don't have to easily move past younger teams or always win series against them. When the Knicks got to the Finals vs. the Spurs, they had Sprewell, Houston, Camby and not much else. Camby was in his second(?) year. The Pacers were sure it was their time, with MJ finally gone. The Nuggets may not get the cash tonight, but they won't play the Washington Generals to Minnesota as the Globetrotters, conceding that they have not earned the right to interrupt "KG playoff justice." "Have to"s lead to those inflated lines at the end of the NFL seasons. Some still cover, but rarely are you getting value for a fairly common "public" perception. The roll of the favs so far and the absence of any 2-2 series (pre- MIA-NOR tonight) can seduce one into thinking this is the new "order" of things. But the sample size is negligible and has virtually no influence on subsequent games...except to develop value almost only for the dogs, particularly one which has already won one.
