NBA Basketball Betting: Golden State Warriors at Cleveland Cavaliers

Maybe playing on their home court will be enough to make the Cleveland Cavaliers wake up and realize the NBA Finals have begun. The Cavs entered this series without home court advantage but otherwise had the Golden State Warriors exactly where they wanted them. Cleveland only needed six games to methodically dismiss the Toronto Raptors. Golden State, meanwhile, needed a full 7 games to recover from a 3-1 deficit to the Oklahoma City Thunder and advance to the NBA Finals. The ‘Seventh Game Hangover’ situation was clearly in play in Game One–it’s tough for a team to go from a draining seven game series immediately into a new series. This is particularly true when they’re facing a rested opponent.

It didn’t matter. Golden State routed the Cavs in Game One and did it again in Game Two. The Warriors held Cleveland to a pitiful 38.1% shooting night in Game One and Cleveland was even worse in Game Two shooting only 35.4% in Game Two. LeBron James is getting overwhelmed by the Warriors’ defense and he isn’t getting any help from his teammates. Forward Kevin Love is listed as ‘questionable’ for this game and that certainly won’t help matters.

Historically, this is a very strong spot for the home team. NBA teams returning home after losing the first two games of a best of 7 series on the road are a 59% winner in Game Three and a 66% winner in Game Three of the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, this probably won’t mean anything for the Cavaliers. The problem isn’t the matchups in this series–though they’re pretty bad–but the overall state of the NBA. The Warriors have a superstar player in Steph Curry but they’ve build a team around him, not just filled in pieces with the best players they can sneak in under the salary cap. The Warriors play intense, team basketball from buzzer to buzzer. Even the good teams in the NBA–including Cleveland–exert effort in spurts, picking their spots in some games (and even within some games) and dogging it the rest of the time.

This has ‘sweep’ written all over it. All Golden State has to do is win the game outright and they were 34-7 on the road during the regular season.

BET GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS +1 OVER CLEVELAND CAVALIERS