Who doesn’t believe the Golden State Warriors will repeat as NBA champs this season? They need their own movie in which the plot have Stephen Curry and gang defeating a team of 12 Michael Jordans.
Then again, they failed to defeat a team that has a dinosaur in Tim Duncan on its roster the other night. The San Antonio Spurs are right behind the Warriors in the standings and in public perception so the race to the top of the NBA mountain is closer than what you could be thinking.
For more odds update, you can check out our NHL breakdown of Stanley Cup faves, sleeper, and long shot here.
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Golden State Warriors
The Warriors are just blowing away the competition this season mostly by deploying their free-flowing offense that ranks first in the NBA with 115.4 points per game on 48.7 field goal shooting percentage. To score that high and still be efficient say a lot about the makeup of the Warriors, who are currently installed -125 to repeat as NBA champions.
San Antonio Spurs
The Warriors are so good that San Antonio’s own exploits this season are somewhat underappreciated. Sure, that’s partly because the Spurs’ quiet, non-bombast collective character, but San Antonio (+225) deserves more attention than what they’re getting today for being on pace too of breaking the 70-win barrier, for being undefeated at home and for being one of the few teams that has defeated Golden State.
San Antonio both has the past and the future to lead the Spurs to another championship in the form of Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan. Furthermore, the Spurs have one of the deepest benches in the league with secondary units averaging 39.7 PPG—third most in the NBA. They’re going to be a terror to face for any team in the playoffs.
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Sleeper
Miami Heat
The Heat’s season didn’t go down with Chris Bosh. In fact, they’ve arguable been better without the big man. As of this writing, Miami has gone 11-5 in its first 16 games sans Bosh.
Still, the idea that Bosh could be back this season should send shivers down the spine of whichever team the Heat will face in the first round of the playoffs. The Heat are fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 40-29 record and have recently took LeBron James and company to the woodshed with a 122-101 beatdown of the Cavs on March 19.
Joe Johnson has been turning profit for the Heat and Hassan Whiteside looks ready to take his elite defense to the postseason. Needless to say, don’t sleep on Miami, which is +4,000 to win the NBA title.
Long Shot
Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies (+10,000) began the season with a lineup that featured Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Jeff Green, Courtney Lee, and Mike Conley. No thanks to a barrage of injuries to the team’s key players and the departure of a couple other pieces, the Grizzlies’ lineup today could pass for a D-League team. Seriously.
The Grizzlies got Randolph back from a lengthy due to injury, but he’s surrounded by the likes of Ryan Hollins, 65-year-old Vince Carter, Ray McCallum, and JaMychal Green. The Grizzlies are not going to win a playoff series with an active roster composed of those players. The return of Conley should give Memphis a boost though.
