All of it comes all the way down to this. Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Will or not it's Cleveland completing the miraculous comeback? Will it's Golden State repeating as champion? More importantly, heading into Sunday’s 8 p.m. tipoff, what are the bettors saying? Covers talks concerning the matchup with Jeff Stoneback, sportsbook manager on the Mirage at the Las Vegas Strip, and John Lester, senior lines manager for offshore site Bookmaker.eu.
Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors – Open: Warriors -5; Move: Warriors -4.5, -5
LeBron James and the Cavaliers are at the precipice of history. No team has ever come again from a 3-1 series deficit within the NBA Finals, but Cleveland has sure gave the look of it will become the primary after winning Games 5 and six in convincing fashion. On Thursday night, the Cavs evened up the series with a 115-101 victory as a 2-point home chalk, earning the best to go back to the West Coast tonight.
The Mirage opened at Warriors -5 and bounced from side to side between 4.5 and 5 a pair times before resettling on the opening number.
“We’ve got rather a lot of cash at -4.5 at the Warriors, and that forced us back to 5,” Stoneback told Covers this morning. “We took a six-figure wager at the Warriors at -4.5 on Saturday. Throw that out, though, and out of the entire tickets written, there’s only three more at the Warriors than at the Cavaliers. So far as people arising to the betting window, it’s split 50-50. There’s just extra money at the Warriors.”
When Bookmaker posted the sport 7 number at -5, shortly after Game 6 ended, Lester said Golden State bettors were on it.
“We took some big bets from public bettors and bumped the spread to -5.5,” Lester said, adding that some sharp Cleveland money came right after that move. “A client we respect must've assumed that will be the ceiling and took the Cavs at the spread and moneyline. We then dropped back to the opener, and early Friday morning had moved to as little as -4.5.
“Action at the home squad has pushed the number back to the opener, but I doubt we'll budge from that again. Right now, the entire bets are almost 50-50, and the money is 60-40 in favor of Cleveland.”
Bookmaker opened the full at 207 and, similar to the spread, has seen the number bounce around.
“The sharp bettors was consistently betting under the total, and so they did the similar for Game 7. We opened at 207.5 and within a few minutes had dropped a point,” said Lester, whose shop dropped further to 206 Friday, then climbed back to 207, where it was steady until sharply dropping all the way down to 205.5 earlier today.
“We’ve taken some substantial bets at the under and Cavs moneyline this morning,” Lester said. Cleveland opened at +180 at the moneyline and is now at +165.Summer Sundays are usually slow at Vegas sportsbooks, but that won’t be the case tonight, with crowds expected to be large and loud, particularly at spots similar to The Mirage.
“Usually this time of year, it’s dead. People sitting around watching golf,” Stoneback said, paying attention to today’s final round of the united states.. Open. “But tonight, there’s a variety of excitement, an excellent storyline, and it will be standing room only.”
Patrick Everson is a Las Vegas-based senior writer for Covers. Follow him on Twitter: @Covers Vegas.
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