The Milwaukee Bucks were slight favorites to win the 2020 NBA Finals as the playoffs got under way on Monday.
The Bucks were being offered at +250 by PointsBet and +260 by FanDuel and William Hill to win the title as the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz kicked off the postseason. That made Milwaukee the favorite at all three sportsbooks, with William Hill also offering the Los Angeles Lakers at +260.
The Los Angeles Clippers were the second betting favorite at the other two books: +260 at PointsBet and +300 at FanDuel, while the Lakers were +325 and +320.
No other team had better than 10-to-1 odds, with the Toronto Raptors +1000 at FanDuel and William Hill and +1200 at PointsBet.
Bucks shoe-ins for NBA Finals?
The Bucks are prohibitive favorites to reach the Finals, while the Western Conference is far deeper with potential title contenders. Milwaukee was -167 at DraftKings to win the Eastern Conference, with the Raptors (+340) the closest challenger.
They were followed by the Boston Celtics (+500), Miami Heat (+900), Philadelphia 76ers (+2200), Indiana Pacers (+5000), Orlando Magic (+10000) and Brooklyn Nets (+15000).
William Hill was the most bullish on the Lakers, who are +150 to win the Western Conference at the book. The Clippers were not far behind at +170, followed by the Houston Rockets (+600), Nuggets (+1200) and Jazz and Dallas Mavericks at +2000.
The Portland Trail Blazers, who advanced to the playoffs from Saturday’s play-in game, had lower odds at +2200 than the Oklahoma City Thunder (+2500).
The Bucks were +290 at DraftKings to ultimately face the Clippers in the Finals. The next lowest odds on Finals matchups were the Bucks vs. Lakers (+310), Raptors vs. Clippers (+900) and Raptors vs. Lakers (+1000).
–Field Level Media ()