Miami Heat favored to take third consecutive trophy
The 2013 NBA Championship ended last week after the Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs to become back-to-back champions. After a weekend of celebration and looking back at one of the most exciting NBA finals of all-time, gamblers can now turn their attention towards the next season as the big bookmakers have released early betting odds for the 2014 NBA Championship. Miami is favored to take it down again and after their performance in the best-of-seven series against the Spurs, it is pretty easy to see why.
2013 NBA Finals Recap
In case you missed the finals this season, you should definitely check out the replays as all seven games were very thrilling. In short, the Spurs took one game from Miami before switching to their home court for the following three games.
With the series tied at 1-1, Spurs take the lead but the Heat come back to tie the series once again and guarantee at least one more game in Miami. After the San Antonio Spurs win Game 5, they put themselves in a very good position, needing just one more win to become champions. History was certainly in their favor as not a lot of teams managed to come back from a 3-2 disadvantage to win the NBA finals.
The game of Roulette continued as all the fans were watching the ball spin around the court in what very easily could have been a decisive Game 6. The Spurs were ahead by five points with only 28 seconds left of regulation time left on the clock but couldn’t maintain their lead long enough. The game went to overtime and Miami made an incredible comeback to take the series to a Game 7.
Another close game followed on Thursday night as both teams got off to a rocky start, missing some key shots, but it quickly became one for the history books. Miami managed to pull ahead several times but San Antonio kept coming back with the score being 44-46 for the hosts at halftime. By the end of the third quarter, their lead was down to only one point but the Heat got a nice lead towards the end of the game thanks to LeBron James making some big plays and the Spurs were unable to have a response, losing their first NBA Finals.
Early Betting Odds for 2014
As expected, the NBA finals going to seven games attracted a lot of betting action for the major sportsbooks and the fact that it was so close made things every exciting. Now, the early betting odds favor the Miami Heat for the 2014 NBA Championship despite the fact that many things can change over the summer; there are even rumors that the “Big Three” will be split for next season.
The Miami Heat opened with 2-1 odds to win their third consecutive NBA title and this would mean that they would have to make it to their fourth NBA finals in four years. Only one team even came close to this achievement and that was the L.A. Lakers as Kobe led them to the finals on three occasions; in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Their fourth attempt was ended prematurely as the Dallas Mavericks eliminated them and then went on to win the 2011 NBA Championship by defeating the Miami Heat.
Oklahoma City Thunder is next on the list with 11-2 odds, followed by the Chicago Bulls with 15-2. Despite the fact that they came incredibly close to winning the championship this year, the San Antonio Spurs only have 17-2 betting odds for next season. The Lakers are much lower on the list with 22-1 odds while there is little faith in the rebuilding plan adopted by the Detroit Pistons this summer with early odds putting them close to the bottom at 300-1.
The Charlotte Bobcats and the Orlando Magic are the two less likely teams to win the 2014 NBA Championship, now at 500-1 odds.
Of course, many things can change over the summer and some of the lines will be modified so be sure to get your bets in as fast as possible and support your favorite team right from the start. Early betting is always risky but it can be very rewarding for the gamblers that can’t wait for another exciting NBA season to start.
