BEST LINES:  Pinnacle -11½ -108 BET365 -11½ -110 SportsInteraction -11½ +-110 5DIMES -11½ -110

Posted at 3:00 PM EST.

8:00 PM EST. If you put the Warriors money line into your parlays or just flat out laid the big lumber on a straight bet, you were sweating bullets until the final seconds of regulation in Game 1. A combination of bad officiating and teammate blunders kept LeBron James from doing the impossible and leading a group of glorified D-Leaguers to a win on the road against the best team assembled in a generation. Before these playoffs, the market was desperate for new blood in the championship picture from the Raptors to the Celtics to 76ers to the Rockets, but they all came up short to the two teams NBA conspiracy theorist swear the league "wants" in the Finals. With the matchup set, there were many groans from callers on sports talk radio, twerps on Twitter and even some pundits that lamented a fourth straight Cavs/Dubs NBA Finals matchup, but that tone has changed after Cleveland took the defending champs all the way to the brink on their home floor. By the weekend the Warriors/Cavs rivalry was once again being discussed as perhaps the best of all time.

Where it matters most, in the market, we have to wonder how this game will be approached today. On the ground, in Vegas, the books were on the hook big time with many betters on either the Cavs money line or the Warriors spotting -12 or more. If you had a ticket on the Dubs to cover those double digits you were never in it until the late stages of overtime. It might be hard to come right back and spot that significant number again today. If you had Cleveland straight up, it's nearly impossible not to think that you got jammed by all things "in-game variance." The best outcome for the books was the result that happened a Warriors win but no cover. When the Game 2 line was posted at GS -12, the market pounced and that number is now down to 11½ and we would not be surprised if it's down to 11 by tip-off.

We are in the business of playing over and underreactions and much is being made about how well the Warriors played in Game 1 after shooting over 50% from the field and hitting 95% of their free throws but still needing all the breaks to force overtime with the inferior Cavaliers. We loved the Cavs in Game 1 and posted our tickets on Twitter to prove it, but now it's time to change gears. We are seeing and hearing many a pick seller and pundit suggest that the Cavs are now in the Warriors heads and that LeBron is being "disrespected." That may have been true before Game 1 but asking James to perform at that high level again tonight with all that dead weight tied to his back is unfair. So too is expecting any of those stiffs in Wine and Gold to pull up their socks and contribute something other than a complete collapse with less than a minute to play. If the Cavs hang around tonight and make it interesting then so be it. However, the Warriors have saved their best basketball for these finals after sleepwalking through the first three rounds. Golden State has many studs to help pull away from Cleveland, while the Cavs are a one trick pony. The greatest pony of all time, perhaps, but that's not going to be enough.

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