For all of the talk that something was ‘wrong’ with the Golden State Warriors they’re back where they were expected to be when the NBA season began. The Warriors will travel to Toronto to begin their NBA Finals series against the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena and despite the absence of Kevin Durant (already ruled out for Game 1) they looked to be back in championship form as they shredded Portland in the Western Conference Finals. With Durant sidelined it looked like the rest of the Golden State lineup was determined to ‘pick up the slack’ as they swept Portland to advance to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight season. The Warriors will now try to pull off the ‘Three-peat’ and win their third straight championship and fourth in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toronto will be making their first appearance in the NBA Finals and the Raptors had a very strange playoff run. It never really appeared to come together for the Raptors until the Conference Finals against Milwaukee. They needed five games to eliminate Orlando after a Game 1 upset on their home court. They followed that up by winning a 7 game series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Throughout the run Kawhi Leonard played monstrous basketball but didn’t get much help from his teammates. As a result, the team was extremely erratic and just didn’t looked focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what caused that to change it definitely did change early in the Eastern Conference Finals. After two routine Milwaukee wins at home, the Raptors scrapped to a double overtime victory in the crucial Game 3. In the process, they completely seized the momentum in the series and the Bucks essentially folded from that point forward. Until Game 3 of the Bucks series Toronto had been on a 3-5 SU\/2-6 ATS run but since that point they are 4-0 SU\/ATS and at times looked downright devastating against the team with the NBA’s best regular season record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tougher road to the NBA Finals could benefit Toronto. The last thing the Raptors want is to lose the momentum they had in the last four games of the conference finals. Having less time off between the Conference Finals and the start of this series could benefit them. When Game 1 tips off, Golden State will not have played for 10 days which is not always an advantage in a streaky, finesse oriented sport like basketball. The Warriors are still the Warriors, however, and are a formidable challenge for any team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Warriors are also the most overvalued team in the league against the NBA pointspread. Golden State has a 70% SU winning percentage this year going 69-29. Against the pointspread, however, they’re 42-54-2 for a loss of -17.4 units. Only the hapless New York Knicks have lost more units at the betting window this season. In what should be an extremely competitive series look for the Raptors to strike the first blow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n