Basketball betting experts are favoring the Cleveland Cavaliers to win game 4 of the NBA finals at home and thus tie the championship series 2-2. For example, these are the odds at BetNow.eu:
Warriors +2 (-110) 206½ (-110) +115
Cavaliers -2 (-110) 206½ (-110) -135
Admittedly, this is not a very bold prediction to make for people who bet on NBA. After all, the Cavs have yet to lose a single game at the Quicken Loans Arena in these playoffs. Not only has Cleveland won all their 8 games at home so far, they have done so by outscoring the opposing team by 22 points on average – and game 3 of the Finals, a 120-90 blowout, was no exception. And those basketball betting fans who thought that the Warriors would be the one team to break that particular streak were proven wrong in game 3. Then again, that could have been just a consequence of Golden State’s game 3 curse – the Warriors are 0-4 in Game 3s in this postseason.
That notwithstanding, the Warriors playoff on-the-road record is spotty to say the least. At 3-5, they have lost almost as many away games during the postseason as they did during the regular season. As people who bet on NBA might tell you, this does not bode well for Golden State’s chances in Cleveland. All things considered, Cavs basketball betting fans got love their odds. And speaking of which, what’s Love got to do with it? Kevin Love, that is. He’s an All Star, earns millions, and is part of the Cavaliers big 3 but, were the Everly Brothers right when they said that Love Hurts? Or for a slightly less outdated reference, did Def Lepard have a point when they said that Love Bites?
More specifically, are the Cavs better against the Warriors without Kevin Love? Let’s make a little comparison. A year ago, Cleveland lost Love to injury in the first round of the playoffs. They made it to the finals regardless, and lost the first game to GS by 8 points (compare that to this year’s 104-80 game 1 loss with Love). The Cavs rallied and won the following two games 95-93 and 96-01 (once again, compare to this year’s 110-77 game 2 loss with Love, and 120-90 game 3 win without). Of course we’re just throwing these things around, mostly to fill space; according to that logic, Cleveland would also play better without Kyrie Irving, who only played one Finals game last year before fracturing a kneecap. Not to mention that the Cavs still lost the championship in 2015. Still, coach Lue might do well to bring Love off the bench when and if he’s medically cleared to return.
