It feels like an eternity since Golden State and Cleveland wrapped up their respective conference finals matchups, however, the wait should be worth it with one of the most anticipated NBA Finals Series in recent history kicking off Friday at 11am. We preview the massive Game 1 from Golden State and give our betting tips below.
Cleveland will go into Game 1 fully healthy and attempt to pinch the series home court advantage straight off the bat while there could be some injury concerns for the Warriors ahead of tip off. Sixth man and known LeBron James stopper Andre Igoudala was hindered throughout the Western Conference Finals with and most of the 2016-17 regular season with a bad back. Stand in Coach Mike Brown played Igoudala just 51 minutes throughout the WCF and the swingman shot just 3-27 from beyond the arc in the series.
It could be a real telling point for the Warriors, who without him will have to run the risk of playing Draymond Green or Kevin Durant on LeBron James, or doubling him which is always dangerous with the number of shooters the Cavs possess. If Iggy is able to take the floor for substantial minutes, with the way he his shooting, LeBron could become a roaming threat on defence, helping off Igoudala forcing him to beat them with 3’s.
There’s still the issue of stopping Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, but the Cavs have a host of athletic bodies to throw at them in Iman Shumpert, LeBron James and JR Smith. Cav’s Coach Tyronn Lue has to get the ball out of the trio’s hands and force Igoudala and Draymond Green to beat them.
With so much uncertainty going into the first game and how evenly matched these two teams seem to be I find it hard to justify the 7-point line, even if the Warriors do have the home court advantage. We think this series gets off to a cracking start with a close game that could go either way.
TIP: Cleveland Cavaliers +7.5 - $1.95 at Sportsbet
Tristan Thompson will likely have limited impact on this series. His only viable matchup on the other side of the ball is Zaza Pachulia and with the Warriors wanting to go small every chance they get, both big men will probably see a smaller number of minutes than usual. Thompson also does great work on the box outs but generally lets either LeBron or Kyrie Irving come swoop an uncontested rebound to start the break. All these factors make his 9.5 rebound line a little high for our liking.
TIP: Tristan Thompson UNDER 9.5 rebounds - $2 at Sportsbet
As we mentioned above, Cleveland could attempt to shut the trio of Thompson, Curry and Durant down with constant double teams. If this happens and they force Igoudala or Draymond to shoot, Green could continue his hot 3pt shooting form of the playoffs so far.
TIP: Draymond Green OVER 1.5 made threes - $1.90 at Sportsbet
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