NICK Wells (@NVW89) is back with two more bets for Sunday night’s NBA Finals Game 2.
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Golden State | Monday 01:10
Ouch. That’s all I can say after an horrific end to Game 1 from our perspective. The Warriors struggled from the field as predicted and finished on 98 points…the only problem being, so did the Cavs, which meant we then had to play an extra five minutes OT. Even with the extra five minutes of overtime, the bet still only lost by one possession.
Tristan Thompson was a demon on the boards finishing with 15 rebounds which meant we cashed our second bet on the night and there was an additional positive as LeBron James (who is our selection for Top Point Scorer), is now into 1/12 to win the accolade and looks like he should, barring injury.
I had planned to take Cavs to win here as I felt that they would probably lose the first game and then win the second but with the OT injury to PG Kyrie Irving, I don’t feel comfortable taking the Cavs. Instead, I’m going to opt for two player based bets in the hope we can find some value.
Rebounding is going to be huge in this series and that’s the angle I’m taking in my first tip. The Dubs had six players with 5+ rebounds in game one, including Draymond Green who grabbed six. On Sunday, I’m expecting Green to grab a few more than that, especially with the increased ISO play by the Cavs which could lead to poor shot selection and thus, more missed shots.
So with this in mind and the fact Green had been averaging over 10 boards a game, I think taking him to grab Over 9.5 rebounds is a really sound bet.
The second selection is a bit of a non brainer… and that’s LeBron James to score a tonne of points. LeBron did it all last game and finished with 44 points, so without Kyrie Irving he should pretty much have the ball in his hands on every possession. Irving’s replacement, Matthew Dellavedova, is very much a ‘pass first’ point guard and as such should look to facilitate instead of shooting or driving to the rim, like Irving would.
This should ultimately mean more shots for LeBron and so he should score at least 30 points tonight which is 4/7 with Ladbrokes, whilst over 31.5 points is available at 4/5 with SkyBet, although I’d prefer to take the smaller odds for the lesser point target.
Just a quick word of advice with regards to placing player performance bets. Much like shopping around for the best odds, it’s always prudent to find the best point total available. So if one bookmaker is offering ‘Player A’ to score Over 9.5 points and the rest are offering Over 11.5 points, then obviously take the 9.5. You’d be amazed at just how often that extra point or two makes the difference between winning and losing.
Best Bets
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Golden State – Draymond Green Over 9.5 Rebounds (17/20 888 Sport)
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Golden State – LeBron James To Score 30 Points Or More (4/7 Ladbrokes)
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