{"id":76670,"date":"2018-04-30T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T20:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=76670"},"modified":"2018-04-30T11:47:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T18:47:43","slug":"warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors, Rockets NBA Favorites Entering Semifinals, Cavs Underdogs vs. Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are the heavy favorites to win the NBA title heading into round two of the playoffs.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_76674\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76674\" data-style=\"width: 2758px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-76674\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/usa_today_9994582.0.jpg\" alt=\"Warriors Rockets NBA odds\" width=\"2758\" height=\"1839\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-76674\"class=\"text-description\">Steph Curry&#8217;s Golden State Warriors and James Harden&#8217;s Houston Rockets are the favorites in Las Vegas to win the NBA Finals. (Image: Sergio Estrada\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">After making quick work of their round one foes, the Warriors and Rockets cruised to easy first-game wins in their semifinal series openers. Golden State topped the New Orleans Pelicans 123-101 on Saturday, and the Rockets took care of the Houston Jazz 110-96 on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Cleveland and Boston both needed seven games to reach the semis. They will respectively face the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/nba-playoffs-finally-have-early-round-excitement\">Las Vegas oddsmakers<\/a> believe the two teams that are already one-up in on their semi opponents are the squads to beat for the NBA championship.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\">The Westgate SuperBook has the Warriors as the favorites at 4\/5, or implied odds of about 56 percent. A $100 bet and Golden State winning its third title in four years nets the gambler $80 at this juncture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Rockets are next at 9\/5, with a $100 wager coming to fruition netting $180. The 76ers, the hottest team in the NBA, are next at 8\/1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Houston, the Eastern Conference regular season leaders, follow at 12\/1. The remaining four goes Cleveland (15\/1), Boston (80\/1), Pelicans and Jazz (100\/1).<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><b>LeBron the Underdog<\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">LeBron James has never lost a first-round playoff series in his illustrious career, but his Cavs needed all seven games against a resilient Indiana Pacers team led by Victor Oladipo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Cleveland won Sunday 105-101 to advance, but sportsbooks were none too happy about Oladipo&#8217;s last-second three pointer that wiped millions of dollars from their books.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>The Cavs were favorites by five to 5.5 points at tip off, meaning the made three pointer as time expired allowed the Pacers to cover the spread.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;It was probably a swing of $3 million to $5 million in Nevada,&#8221; Wynn Las Vegas sportsbook manager Johnny Avello told <i>ESPN<\/i>. &#8220;These types of things happen \u2026 whether it&#8217;s a two-run home run to cover the run line in the bottom of the ninth or an empty-net goal in the last minute of an NHL game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">After sneaking by Indiana, the Cavs will have an even harder test in facing the Raptors. Toronto is unquestionably out for revenge, as LeBron &amp; Co. have ousted the team up north in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But Toronto is a better team in 2017-18, and Cleveland has struggled amid numerous roster changes. The SuperBook has the Raptors the favorite at -200, or implied odds of about 67 percent.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><b>Series Odds<\/b><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/players-unions-demand-seat-at-sports-betting-table\">Most sportsbooks feel<\/a> the NBA title will be decided when and if the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets meet in the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Both are outlandishly favored in the semifinals with one game already in the bag. The Warriors are at -3500, (implied odds of 97.22 percent), and the Rockets are at -6000 (98.36 percent).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At those odds, a $100 wager nets a measly $2.86 on Golden State, and $1.67 on Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The other semifinal series in the East, Philly is the strong frontrunner at -450 (implied odds 82 percent) over the Kyrie Irving-less Celtics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are the heavy favorites to win the NBA title heading into round two of the playoffs. After making quick work of their round one foes, the Warriors and Rockets cruised to easy first-game wins in their semifinal series openers. Golden State topped the New Orleans Pelicans 123-101 on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":76674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Warriors, Rockets NBA Favorites Entering Semifinals, Cavs Underdogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are the heavy favorite to win the NBA title as the second round of the playoffs tips off.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Warriors, Rockets NBA Favorites Entering Semifinals, Cavs Underdogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are the heavy favorite to win the NBA title as the second round of the playoffs tips off.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-30T20:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-30T18:47:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/usa_today_9994582.0-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devin O&#039;Connor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CasinoorgDevinO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devin O&#039;Connor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/\",\"name\":\"Warriors, Rockets NBA Favorites Entering Semifinals, Cavs Underdogs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/usa_today_9994582.0-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-30T20:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-30T18:47:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf\"},\"description\":\"The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are the heavy favorite to win the NBA title as the second round of the playoffs tips off.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/warriors-rockets-favorites-entering-semis-cavs-underdogs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/usa_today_9994582.0-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/usa_today_9994582.0-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors and James Harden's Houston Rockets are the favorites in Las Vegas to win the NBA Finals. 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Devin's passion for politics and background in the world of pop culture television gives him insight into the gaming industry backstories that often drive news these days. After graduating from Penn State University with a theater arts degree, he worked at MTV Networks\/Viacom from 2005 to 2010 as a writer and producer. His credits included Total Request Live, New Year's Eve specials, and a special featuring poker superstar Daniel Negreanu. He later moved on to the HGTV\/DIY Network, where he created, wrote, and produced three series specials: That's So House Hunters, That's So 80s, and That's So 90s. Devin came on board with Casino.org in 2014. He lives in Pennsylvania and is an avid marathoner, having completed 15 races. 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