League-leading Grizzlies, Raptors Still Trail Favorites in NBA Online Betting
It came as little surprise to sports bettors and fans when the Cleveland Cavaliers were pegged as early betting favorites to win the 2015 NBA Championship, following the return to Ohio of prodigal son LeBron James, who inked a two-year deal with the Cavs this past summer.
Along with recently acquired power forward Kevin Love and rising star Kyrie Irving, James and the Cavs opened the 2014/2015 NBA season pegged as heavy 5/2 favorites in NBA futures betting at sportsbooks available through www.bettingsports.com, closely followed by the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, who opened at 7/2.
However, following a month of regular season action, the Cavs and Spurs sit in the middle of the pack, while a pair of pre-season betting longshots have emerged as conference leaders, with the surprising Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies coming out of the Thanksgiving long weekend atop the standings.
Following their 15-2 start, the Grizzlies enter December with the NBA’s best record and are now seen as contenders for the west. But, Memphis has received little respect in the betting odds, despite owning the top defense in the league in the early going, holding opponents to just 92.4 points per game.
After opening the season listed as 50/1 longshots to win their first NBA Championship, the Grizzlies still trail the favorites in NBA futures betting, with odds of 20/1, and trail six rivals with odds of 11/1 to win the NBA Western Conference.
The sole team in the NBA remaining undefeated at home, with SU wins in their first eight home dates, Memphis has also consistently rewarded bettors since mid-November, going 6-1 SU and ATS in their final seven games of the month, winning by an average margin of 15 points in each of their victories, with their only defeat during that stretch coming in Toronto, a 96-92 loss to the surging Raptors.
After claiming the Atlantic Division title last season, their first since 2007, the Raptors have captured the imagination of usually hockey-mad fans in Toronto, roaring to a 13-4 start to the season that leaves them perched atop the NBA’s Eastern Conference heading into December.
While the Grizzlies have been getting it done on defense, the Dinos have been winning with a potent distributed offense that ranks second in the NBA, with 108.5 points per game.
Toronto was also recently pegged as having a 100% chance of making the NBA Playoffs, and a league-leading 25.6% chance of winning this year’s NBA title in an advanced computer simulation that plays out the remainder of the season 5000 times to determine the potential range of projected outcomes.
Despite their solid play in both the real and virtual worlds, the Raptors have yet to convince oddsmakers in NBA futures betting.
Like the Grizzlies, Toronto also opened their season as 50/1 longshots, and enters the second month of the regular season with intriguing odds of 18/1 to win the NBA title.
With the Cavaliers (7/2), Spurs (7/2), Chicago Bulls (7/1) and Los Angeles Clippers (10/1) hanging tough as NBA Championship favorites at sportsbooks available through www.bettingsports.com, the Grizzlies and Raptors will have to keep up their winning ways to gain the respect in online betting that they have already earned from opponents on the court.
