Updated 2018 NBA Championship Odds – May 7th

A lot of sports betting prognosticators — including this writer — thought that the Philadelphia 76ers would move right past Boston into an Eastern Conference finals date with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Cleveland appears to be holding their end of the deal, as they have rolled up a 3-0 lead against a Toronto Raptors team that can beat anyone but LeBron James. Philadelphia, though, has imploded in each of their three games against Boston, most recently losing in overtime on Saturday night, 101-98, and now they sit on the brink of elimination. In the Western Conference, both of the favorites — Houston and Golden State — have rolled up 3-1 leads over Utah and New Orleans, respectively, which is why those two teams sit at the bottom of the odds table below. Check out our 2018 NBA Championship odds for each team and our comments about each of the eight remaining teams.

Updated 2018 NBA Championship Odds – May 7th

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— NBA (@NBA) May 7, 2018

• Golden State Warriors                                             5-8
• Houston Rockets                                                      19-10
• Cleveland Cavaliers                                                  7-1
• Boston Celtics                                                           25-1
• Philadelphia 76ers                                                    85-1
• Toronto Raptors                                                       250-1
• New Orleans Pelicans                                              500-1
• Utah Jazz                                                                   500-1

On Friday night, New Orleans took Golden State to the woodshed, winning by 19 points in a game that was never particularly close. The Warriors responded on Sunday by putting up 37 points in the first quarter, taking a 15-point lead that they would not relinquish. New Orleans bounced back with a 32-point second quarter but then put up just 38 combined points in the second half, wilting under the pressure of the Warriors. While the return of Stephen Curry has been the big story for the Warriors, the real hero of Game Four was Kevin Durant, who went 15 for 27 from the floor and scored 38 points, pulling down nine rebounds. Curry put up 23 points, Klay Thompson chipped in 13, and Quinn Cook (who started the season as a Pelican) scored a dozen. The problem for the Pelicans was their shooting, which had been terrific in Game Three but dropped to 36 percent  — and behind the arc, they clanked 22 of their 26 shots from downtown. They coughed the ball up 19 points, and Golden State turned that into 21 points the other way. Ball security and shooting need to improve for New Orleans, but it may be too late for the Pelicans to catch back up with the Warriors. The dynamic duo of Chris Paul and James Harden combined for 51 points as the Houston Rockets took down Utah, 100-87, to take a 3-1 series lead. Paul added a dozen rebounds to take over the reins of the team in this game. Donovan Mitchell put up 25 points for the Jazz but ended up fouling out, and Joe Ingles added 15 points. Mitchell pulled the Jazz within five points in the fourth quarter, bu then Paul answered with a jumper and Trevor Ariza drained a three-ball to restore the double-digit effort. The real surprise for Houston was their shutdown defense, led by Clint Capela, who blocked six shots (in addition to scoring 12 points and grabbing 15 rebounds). The Jazz missed 22 point-blank shots, though, which doesn’t bode well with the series returning to Houston for Game Five. More mental mistakes plagued the Philadelphia 76ers in their overtime loss to Boston on Saturday night. Marco Belinelli drained a three-ball as time expired in regulation, and confetti shot all over the court, as the Philadelphia promotional staff thought the shot had been the game-winner. Coach Brett Brown thought the game was over too and actually left the court. However, that merely tied the game and sent it to overtime. Belinelli hit another shot from downtown in the early seconds of overtime, and J.J. Redick hit another, but the Sixers could not get stops. Al Horford gave the Celtics a 99-98 lead late in overtime, but Ben Simmons had a chance to lead a scoring play but threw the ball away. That wasted a 22-point, 19-rebound night from Joel Embiid and 18 points from Redick. Can the Sixers win even one game in this series? They blew a 22-point lead in Game Two and let mental mistakes sink them here as well. Too many ball mistakes and too many clanked shots — and too many missed defensive assignments — could send Boston to the conference finals. Another Toronto – Cleveland playoff game, another dagger from LeBron James. This time it took the form of a running floater at the buzzer, just after Toronto had tied the game at 103 with a three-ball from rookie O.G. Anunoby. Toronto scored 38 points in the fourth quarter, mounting a furious comeback, but it just was not enough. James had 38 points on the night, and Kevin Love scored 21 points while grabbing 16 boards, and Kyle Korver added 18 points. For Toronto, Kyle Lowry had 27 points, but DeMar DeRozan had just 8 points, going 3 for 12 from the floor, and spent the fourth quarter on the bench. That makes 11 wins in 13 tries for LeBron against Toronto. With Game Four set for Cleveland on Monday night, a sweep seems all but in the books.