The Cavaliers have been the perennial favorites to win the Eastern Conference since LeBron James returned to Cleveland in 2014, but that’s not the case at the moment. After the first two games of each first-round series, the oddsmakers at Bovada.lv have the Raptors as the frontrunners to come out of the East, followed in close succession by the Cavs and Sixers.
The Raptors took care of business during their two home games against the Wizards, while the Cavs and Sixers split their home games against Indiana and Miami, respectively. As such, it makes sense that the Raptors would be a slightly better bet to advance for now, but it’s still jarring to see a LeBron team considered an underdog of any sort in the East.
Still, even though the Cavs aren’t viewed as the favorites to win the East – at least for the time being – those same oddsmakers at Bovada consider them a much stronger bet than the Pacers to make a deep postseason run. While Cleveland is about a 5-to-3 bet to come out of the East, Indiana’s odds are just 28-to-1.
The Heat (33-to-1), Wizards (80-to-1), and Bucks (80-to-1) are even longer shots than the Pacers, and even the Celtics, who are missing stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, come in at just 20-to-1. In other words, oddsmakers view the East as a three-team race featuring the Cavs, Raptors (5-to-4), and Sixers (a little over 3-to-1).
LeBron’s squad has pulled a Jekyll-and-Hyde act all year, so it’s hard to say which team will show up going forward. Even when James enjoyed a vintage performance in Game 2 vs. Indiana, racking up 46 points, the Cavs still only won by three.
The Raptors and Sixers have questions of their own though. The Raptors have never beaten James in the postseason, and lost to the Cavs twice in the second half of the 2017/18 regular season. The Sixers’ top players lack playoff experience, and Joel Embiid‘s health remains something of a question mark.
The upshot? We should have the most wide-open Eastern Conference postseason in years, with a handful of viable Finals contenders.
What do you think? Will James and the Cavs continue to hold serve in the East? Will the Raptors or Sixers take the conference crown this year? Or will a dark-horse candidate represent the East in the Finals?
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This reminds me of the year LeBron was poised to face Kobe in the finals but got knocked out by D12 and the Magic. What team will be that Orlando squad? Hard to put faith in a team built around a mid range guy (Toronto) or one in which the point guard has no ability whatsoever to shoot the ball (Philadelphia). Hard to bet against LeBron
the irony of this comment is that the 09 magic made it to the finals because they had a bunch of shooters and a beast in the middle. While Simmons doesn’t shoot (yet), he’s around a bunch of people who can: Covington (sometimes), reddick, saric, ersan, marco, and even embiid.
The sixers are built very similar to that team after getting marco and ersan. Simmons can score so he still attracts attention, enough attention for him to be able to hit cutting shooters.
I believe the two teams you mentioned have the best shot to win the east.
Still early in the playoffs, but so far Toronto should come out of the Eastern conference. The much talked about culture reset of the club has translated from the regular season to the post-season thus far with seemingly no answer from the Wizards, and this is coming with the Raptors arguably missing their best player off the bench. Derozan and Lowry were key in closing out a tough game one with Derozan following that up with his best playoff performance to date where the Wizards could not do anything to stop him. The Wizards did make a run of it in game 2, but the Raptors didn’t buckle and Demar and Kyle were key once again in closing out game 2. Granted, this year’s version of the Wizards are underwhelming, but aside from that 2nd quarter in game 1 the Wizards haven’t looked impressive at all aside from Mike Scott.
The Cavs for their part haven’t been impressive at all. James aside, he isn’t getting much help with his supporting cast unable to play defence despite the much ballyhooed new acquisitions giving them an improved ability to switch on defence and compete with the younger teams that were wreaking havoc on them earlier in the season. To win game 2 by 3 points despite 46 from LeBron while Harden goes 2/18 in a blowout win of the T-Wolves isn’t that inspiring, particularly with them splitting their home games and removing any home court advantage for the time being.
As for the Sixers they got bullied in game 2 and Miami, like Indiana, took away Philly’s home court advantage for the time being. To me they’re a tougher team to gauge than Toronto or Cleveland because we haven’t seen Joel Embiid yet, and we don’t really know how Spoeltra and the Heat will counter him until game 3. Olynyk has gotten the lion’s share of minutes at C against PHI thus far, but to me Whiteside and Adebayo will be key in trying to slow down Embiid, even if that comes at the cost of limiting themselves offensively.
And finally with Boston it all comes down to Brad Stevens and getting the most out of his players. I think they’ve got better odds than what Vegas is giving them, but even with Giannis the Bucks aren’t that big a test as they come off as a Cavs-lite. They may have dominated game 2, but they did need overtime in game 1.
Again, this is all from a 2 game sample from each series and momentum could easily shift with game 3, but for now Toronto has looked the most impressive thus far.
Love’s injury is not getting to help, and without an otherworldly performance from LBJ, the Cavs lose most nights. Clarkson, Nance, Hood, not looking great so far. I know it’s only two games, so anything can happen, but I feel like this Cavs team, while more talented, are similar to the last couple of Cavs teams Bron played for before leaving the 1st time.
I feel like it’s the Raptors year. Though the cast is similar to last year, they’re playing a different game with a different attitude. That young bench does not look phased by the big stage.
KingJames = 2018 finals MVP
King James, maybe.
LeBron James = swept in 2018 finals.