OKC Favored in West Finals at -375: Is It Justified?

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00:00OKC, though, DRS has been a hefty favorite to win the West basically since December,

00:05a minus money favorite for the last two to three months and at its peak throughout the postseason,

00:11a minus 270 favorite. That number altered slightly after Denver won game number six to extend this

00:18series in force a game seven yesterday. But after the Thunder take care of business, winning by 32,

00:25what's the number? What's the series outright price for the Western Conference finals between the

00:31Thunder and the T-Wolves? You see it there. Minus 375 in favor of OKC. Is that justified in your

00:40estimation? It is justified based on like the seedings, right? And also understand this,

00:45like we're all OKC'd up now because they just beat Denver and Denver's a good team. They got

00:49Nicole Jokic game seven. They were impressive. And it's almost like you forget, like the Timberwolves

00:53easily dispatched to the Los Angeles Lakers. But they're not going to get any credit for beating

00:57the Warriors without Steph Curry. And that's the issue. Now, also, they didn't have an extended

01:01series with them, Ben. It's not like it went six or seven games like, man, we had to fight and beat

01:05them without Steph Curry. Like they easily handled them. But I don't think the credit is going to be

01:09there. The minus 375 seems impressive saying, well, I don't know if I want to take that and maybe take

01:14the plus 300. But just ask yourself this, like if you're just looking at the series itself without any

01:19odds, do you actually think the Minnesota Timberwolves can go in and beat Oklahoma

01:23City when Oklahoma City has home court advantage? I like Minnesota. They got good defense. They got

01:28a superstar on offense in Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards. But at the same time, I just don't think they have

01:32enough to beat OKC. But again, the question is, will you lay the 375 as a favorite? And are you that

01:38excited to take OKC? Or is there a chance that you can play this series as all right? Give me the

01:43Timberwolves plus 300 here. Hopefully the Timberwolves can win one game in OKC. Now I have the advantage

01:48with hedging options. And apparently then that they'll be back into the series with home court advantage

01:52on their side as opposed to OKC. I expect this to be a longer series. This will be six or seven games

01:59unless we get a catastrophe type injury on each side. We just saw seven games between the Denver

02:04Nuggets and OKC evenly matched opponents. And I think you'll get the same. So for me, I see that

02:09number at minus one and a half, minus 162. It does make some sense. But I'll be honest, I'll be surprised

02:14if this game does go five. I think it's at least going six or seven games in this one. But I do think once

02:19again, you play the entire season, Ben, to get a home court advantage and a decisive game number

02:24seven on your home court. OKC wins the series, but I do believe it will be an extended series.