When you are betting NBA Finals odds between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics you have a number of choices that go beyond just the side and total. Oftentimes forgotten in basketball odds are the quarter, first half and second half lines and the number of proposition wagers that can be made.
NBA Finals odds favor the home team since the home court advantage is highly respected by the odds makers. That does not mean the home team always wins or covers the spread though. In the first three games of the NBA Finals the road team won twice and covered the spread. The value in this series is definitely with the road team. The Lakers were favored before the series began and they are still the overall favorite to win the NBA Finals.
Since the NBA Finals are televised on ABC, the games get a lot of attention and there are some additional options that wouldn’t be available on regular season games. You can bet a number of proposition wagers that will keep you in action all game. You might want to bet one player against another in a matchup or you might want to bet on an individual quarter. Those options are available in NBA Finals odds.
On a much smaller scale but similar in some respects; the NBA Finals are like the Super Bowl. A lot more people are watching and wagering on the game than would be the case during the regular season. This is even more the case with the Celtics and Lakers since they are marquee teams and since they have a long and storied rivalry.
Some of the types of propositions available are first team to score, total 3-pointers made, total points scored by the Lakers, total points scored by the Celtics, player to score the first points in the game, etc. There are also player matchups such as Kobe Bryant vs. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen vs. Ron Artest, etc. In many of these player matchups you will have one player laying points to the other player. It might be Kobe laying eight points to Pierce which means Kobe would have to score at least eight points more than Pierce for that wager to win vs. the basketball odds.