Celtics open NBA Conference Finals as title favorites

Fresh off their Game 7 beat-down of Philadelphia, the Boston Celtics strengthened their grip on the status of NBA title favorites ahead of the conference finals.

The Celtics are being offered at +110 by BetMGM to win the title and are -550 favorites to beat the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat are the +1200 longshots to win it all.

Boston opened at +650 to win the NBA title this season, and the Celtics have been backed by the most money at 17.2%.

However, they are not BetMGM’s biggest liability.

That would be the Denver Nuggets, who opened at +1400. The Nuggets open their Western Conference Finals series against the Los Angeles Lakers at +240 to win the title, having been backed by the most total bets at 14.8% and the second most money at 15.1%.

Denver is -165 to win the series vs. Los Angeles at +140, which would be a bad outcome for the sportsbook. The Nuggets are the biggest Western Conference liability as they’ve been supported by 24.3% of the money.

The Lakers are +300 to win the title. They are BetMGM’s second biggest liability after opening at +2200.

DraftKings has the same order but slightly different odds. Boston is the +100 title favorite, followed by Denver (+240), Los Angeles (+320) and Miami (+1600).

Jayson Tatum, who scored a record-setting 51 points for Boston in Game 7, is understandably the +160 favorite at BetMGM to take home NBA Finals MVP honors. He is followed by Denver’s Nikola Jokic (+275) and the Lakers’ LeBron James (+375).

Jokic has drawn the most total bets at 21.3%, while James leads the way with 22.8% of the money backing him compared to 21.5% for Jokic.

Tatum is also the +160 favorite at DraftKings, where Jokic is being offered at +250.

–Field Level Media