The Golden State Warriors will go head-to-head against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive season. This time around, the defending champion Warriors are bigger favorites than they've ever been.
Last season, Golden State was listed at -300 to defeat the Cavs in the NBA Finals, which they did in five games. This year, the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas opened Golden State as a -1,000 favorite to win the Finals, making them the largest favorite in at least 16 seasons, according to odds database Sportsoddshistory.com (H/T ESPN).
Cleveland opened as a +650 underdog in the series but this is nothing new for LeBron, as he has now been an underdog in seven of his nine Finals appearances.
The Warriors opened as 12-point favorites for tonight's Game 1 at Oracle Arena, which is tied for the largest point spread in an NBA Finals game since 2001, when the Los Angeles Lakers were a 12-point favorite over Allen Iverson's Philadelphia Sixers, according to ESPN. Ironically, the Sixers won that game. The over/under point total for tonight is set at 214.5 points.
Check out the full tv schedule for the 2018 NBA Finals below, including tonight's Game 1 that is scheduled to tipoff at 9pm ET.
- Game 1 from Oracle Arena: Thursday, May 31, 9 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 2 from Oracle Arena: Sunday, June 3, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 3 from Quicken Loans Arena: Wednesday, June 6, 9 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 4 from Quicken Loans Arena: Friday, June 8, 9 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 5* from Oracle Arena: Monday, June 11, 9 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 6* from Quicken Loans Arena: Thursday, June 14, 9 p.m. ET, ABC
- Game 7* from Oracle Arena: Sunday, June 17, 8 p.m. ET, ABC