Don’t look now, but online bookmakers think the Boston Celtics have pretty solid odds to win it all in Orlando when the 2019-20 NBA season is resumed at the end of July.
Popular online bookmakers SportsLine list the Celtics in a tie for the fourth-best odds to win the 2020 NBA Championship at +1600, sharing that slot with the newly diminutive, “Pocket” Houston Rockets.
The LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers hold the best overall odds to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy this season with +240 odds, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s league-leading Milwaukee Bucks are not far behind with +260 odds.
The Lakers’ cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers, are in sole possession of the third-best odds with +320, and the reigning champion Toronto Raptors and a finally-healthy Philadelphia 76ers are locked into a tie for the fifth-best odds at +2000.
With the new format of the remainder of the regular season set to go before the Board of Governors today for a likely confirmation of an eight-game regular season with a play-in game for the eighth seed, a clearer idea of each team’s path to the NBA Finals is more clear.
Whether Boston makes it that far depends on a host of factors ranging from conditioning and health to chemistry and luck. But, online sportsbooks seem to agree the franchise is in one of the best positions to get to the Finals it’s been in during the Brad Stevens era.
