The Daily Sweat: Celtics are a big Finals favorite after Game 3 win over Warriors
The Boston Celtics made themselves significant favorites to win the NBA Finals with their 116-100 win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
The Celtics are now -225 to win the series at BetMGM after going up 2-1 in the series. Boston has won Game 1 and Game 3 and needs two wins to take the Larry O’Brien Trophy with two of the four possible games remaining in the series scheduled to take place in Boston.
The Warriors opened the series as favorites in large part to their popularity and are now +180 to win the series after the Game 3 loss. The team is also holding its breath regarding Steph Curry’s left foot. Curry found himself at the bottom of a scrum for a loose ball with just over four minutes to go on Wednesday night. The tussle for the ball appeared to injure Curry’s foot and he was clearly not close to 100% for the rest of the loss.
Curry said after the game, however, that he would be “alright” and that he didn’t think he’d miss a game. The injury’s timing is significant with Game 4 on Friday. Game 4 is the first game of the series that doesn’t have two off days before it.
With the Celtics as such big favorites, Jayson Tatum is the favorite to win Finals MVP at +115. Tatum scored 26 points on 23 shots on Wednesday night and has scored over 25 points in each of the last two games. Curry is at +200 to win MVP despite his injury and the Warriors’ deficit and Jaylen Brown is at +300 to win MVP.
It’s basically those three players or bust for MVP too. No other player is at better than +3000 to win the award.
Who will be a win away from the Stanley Cup Final?
The New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning meet in a huge Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday night. The series is tied at 2-2 and the Lightning enter as favorites despite being on the road in Game 5.
Tampa Bay is -130 to win straight up while the Rangers are +110. If you want to take the Lightning at -1.5 goals, you can get Tampa at +200. Taking the Rangers +1.5 nets you odds of -250.
The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the series after beating the Lightning 6-2 and 3-2 at home. But Tampa has won its home games by a combined score of 7-3 as New York’s road form so far in the playoffs hasn’t been very good.
New York has lost two games on the road in all three of its playoff series so far and then bounced back at home. If you think the Rangers can continue that run Thursday night, then you should be eyeing the underdogs.
RBC Canadian Open begins
While the inaugural LIV Golf event has been stealing all the golf headlines this week with its player signings, the PGA Tour is making its first visit to Canada since 2019 this weekend. Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy are the favorites. Dustin Johnson was scheduled to play in the tournament as RBC has been his longtime sponsor. But Johnson elected to take a reported nine-figure payday from LIV Golf and has been dropped by RBC.
Who cashed tickets Thursday?
Bettors were split on the Warriors and Celtics ahead of Game 3 and those on the Celtics’ side were very happy after the 16-point win. The game also hit the over after the total was at 212.5.
People who bet the Angels hoping that the team’s Nickelback walk-up songs would break the losing streak were also disappointed. The Red Sox handed Los Angeles its 14th consecutive loss.
