NBA Finals Best Bets – Celtics vs. Warriors Series Odds, Pick, Prediction

Boston Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors Pick: Celtics to Win the Series | +130 at DraftKings

9 p.m. ET

The Warriors are reminding everyone this year that the dynasty isn’t over. The pace of play and excellent shooting ability from even deep on the roster is reminiscent of the 73-win team.

But I’m not getting on the hype train quite yet. 

The path to the NBA Finals was about as easy for the Warriors as it could have been.

They avoided the Suns and — while they beat some good teams — each of them had major holes and were not matched up well. The Nuggets had putrid guard play for a playoff team and were nowhere near keeping up with the pace.

The Grizzlies have a great young core but are unexperienced and lost key players during the series. The Mavs proved they belong in the conference finals by beating the Suns, but they clearly couldn’t hold up to the Warriors pace.

On the other side, there was no more difficult path to the Finals than the one the Celtics faced.

Kevin Durant and the Nets in Round 1 had no chance. The reigning champion and — at points — favorite to win this year Bucks couldn’t keep up with the shooting. And the 1-seed in the East, the Heat ultimately couldn’t make the big shots like the Celtics. 

Boston should rightfully be feeling disrespected for being underdogs in this series.

The Celtics have the best perimeter defense in the league and can keep up with the Warriors in almost every part of the game. Not to mention the analytics are HEAVILY favoring the Celtics.

When the numbers and the eye test both pass, it’s a deadly combination.