The 2015-16 NBA Finals continues on Thursday as the Cavaliers return to their home court trailing 2-0 in the best of seven series. Continue reading for our NBA Finals Game 3 Preview and Betting Tips.
- - -
NBA Finals Game 3 Betting Tips
Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors (Thursday 11am AEST)
The Cavaliers backs are against the wall as they left the Oracle arena empty handed and embarrassed after two blow out losses against the Warriors. The Cavaliers will be down on confidence but will have a few days to turn things around mentally before they play in front of their home fans. Lebron James hasn’t played at a high level and was very critical of his last performance but for him to play at his best he needs a lot more from his teammates. Kyrie Irving has had two poor-games whilst Kevin Love was forced out of Game 2 due to concussion and had little impact in the result. The Cavaliers haven’t had any production from the rest of their role players and that should turn around in front of their home crowd. Role players tend to feed off the energy of the home crowd and they should be knocking down the shots that they were missing in front of the hostile Warriors crowd.
Another worrying factor for the Cavaliers is that the two-time MVP Stephen Curry and his splash brother Klay Thompson haven’t been required to have their usual impact on their team’s success. Curry has averaged 14.5 points in the opening two games, which is half the amount of his regular season average and he sat out the entire fourth quarter of game 2. Draymond Green has returned to his best and was instrumental for the Warriors at scoring, distrubiting the ball and playing defence in the opening two games. Whilst their biggest advantage has came off the bench as they have had a huge spark and dominated with their second string players whilst the Cavaliers bench players have had little impact.
Trailing 2-0, this is a do or die match for the Cavaliers and we are expecting James to come out with a killer mindset and put his teammates on his shoulders. This should contribute to Irving, Love and the rest of the side having an improved performance. The Warriors will keep the match close but we are predicting a narrow victory for the Cavaliers in their first home game of the finals series.
NOTE: Kevin Love has been ruled out for game 3 due to the concussion he suffered three days ago. This will put the load on Lebron James and Kyrie Irving to step up whilst Channing Frye will likely play a lot of minutes. We will be sticking with our tip because champions lift when their backs are against the wall and James will have the spotlight on him.
TIP: Cavaliers 1-10 @ $2.82 with CrownBet
