Both teams come in having shown great form throughout the playoffs. Boston has had a much tougher route however, with two game 7 wins against Milwaukee and Miami and a hard fought round 1 series win against Brooklyn. Not to say that it’s been easy for the Warriors but they really haven’t been challenged much as Memphis was banged up and really not playoff tested and the same could be said for Dallas who laid a dud in the Western Conference Finals.

Golden State has looked lethargic at times though and we think that could come back to bite them in the finals. Boston has played legitimate good teams in each round and faced a lot of adversity.

This is probably the worst version of the Warriors to make it to the finals since their amazing run started 8 years ago and we think they will struggle in this series. Boston is a tough matchup for them with the amount of wing defenders that they have on their roster. Smart or Brown can matchup with Curry and should be able to do a good enough job on him. Klay really hasn’t looked like his old self yet this playoffs, so then the second scoring option on the Warriors is likely to be Jordan Poole who has very little playoff experience and will also be pestered on defense by the likes of Brown, Smart, or Devin White.

Boston’s overall team defense will be a lot for the Warriors to handle and with their limited scoring options we think they will go through some scoring droughts. Combine that with how well Boston has performed against elite level competition and elite defensive teams throughout the playoffs and we like their chances to be effective of offense too. Tatum has blossomed into a true superstar and it will be tough for the Warriors to come up with an answer for him.

This will be the toughest challenge by far this playoffs for the Warriors and we honestly think the Celtics should be favored in the series. We have Boston in pocket at 19/1 to win the NBA title but we still think there’s value in the series price. The Warriors are getting by on name recognition alone and we think they are in for a rude awakening against a battle tested Celtics team. We’ll take the C’s at +130 and will also look to take an in game line on them if we can +6.5 or better in game one if they get down early.