Curry, Warriors best bet in West as NBA playoffs begin

Only a special player can blur the line between fantasy and reality. Stephen Curry has become one of those players, a surreal shooting star. Who else can hit 77 straight 3-pointers in a practice drill?

Curry pulled off that trick this week. In the age of video games, fantasy sports, social media and, of course, sports wagering, Curry captures the imagination. He makes the ridiculous look routine. He has turned the Golden State Warriors into America’s NBA team.

While boring, low-scoring games and ugly basketball continue to pollute the planet, the Warriors represent the antithesis. The Warriors are entertainment.

“It’s hard not to root for them,” said Nick Bogdanovich, William Hill sports book director. “The Warriors are bet so heavy every day, it’s a joke, but they cash so many tickets.”

But in reality, is Golden State still the team to beat? When the playoffs turn into a grind, and games are won with defensive stops, is a jump-shooting glamour team built to win?

Hype is good for business. At the sports books, Curry and LeBron James will be the driving forces behind NBA action — if all goes according to plan — until mid-June.

At William Hill books, Golden State is the 3-2 favorite to win the championship, followed by Cleveland at 9-5. At the Westgate Las Vegas, the Cavaliers are 9-4 favorites, followed by the Warriors at 5-2.

“Everyone wants those two teams to play each other,” Bogdanovich said, “and barring some minor miracle, it probably will happen.”

Last summer, before James ditched South Beach and returned home to Cleveland, the Cavaliers’ odds opened as high as 50-1. At the same time, the Warriors were posted at 15-1.

“The NBA futures are not all that good,” Bogdanovich said.

At the same time, don’t believe any sensational headlines claiming Las Vegas books would get buried if Cleveland wins the title. Most bookmakers have escaped liability on the Cavaliers, and, Bogdanovich said, college basketball futures draw about three times more money than NBA futures.

A Cleveland-Golden State collision in the NBA Finals would create monster hype and be great for business.

With the playoffs beginning Saturday and Sunday, bookmakers are bracing for post-March madness.

“I like the NBA playoffs quite a bit, especially the first round because you get so many games,” said Jimmy Vaccaro, oddsmaker at the South Point sports book. “I want every series to go seven games.”

Golden State, which finished the regular season with 67 wins and a 39-2 record at home, is a minus-6,000 favorite in a first-round series against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans. It’s not a series that figures to go anywhere near seven games.

Curry, who averaged 23.8 points and 7.7 assists, flashed incredible ball-handling skills and improved defense at the point guard position this season. He’s no one-man show, though. Klay Thompson, who averaged 21.7 points and scored 37 points in one quarter in a January game, is another young gunner straight out of a video game. Curry and Thompson each shoot 44 percent from 3-point range.

First-year coach Steve Kerr has elevated the Warriors from contenders to favorites in the West, where a wild shootout is on the horizon.

“The Warriors are the best team,” Sportsmemo.com handicapper Erin Rynning said, “and they catch a break as they only have to play one of the three best other teams in the West — Spurs, Rockets and Clippers. The concerns for the Warriors will be experience, including late-game situations, and finally beating the overall best player in the game in James.

“The jump shooting isn’t really a concern when your backcourt is Curry and Thompson, obviously perhaps the best shooting tandem we’ve seen in a long time.”

San Antonio, which dethroned James and the Miami Heat in last year’s Finals, is the No. 6 seed despite winning 55 games. The Spurs are minus-175 series favorites over the third-seeded Los Angeles Clippers. If there is an upset in the West, Rynning said the Clippers could pull it.

“The Spurs are the defending champs, own great depth and are coached well,” Rynning said. “However, value is value, and on talent these two teams are evenly matched, while the Clippers gain the home edge.”

Golden State (46-34-2 against the spread) posted the largest average margin of victory (10.1) for an NBA season since the 2007-08 Boston Celtics (10.26).

The Celtics drew the seventh seed in the East and a date with the Cavaliers, who face what should be an easier road to the Finals.

The script sets up a potentially surreal showdown: Curry, the best shooter in the world, against James, the best player on the planet.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports betting columnist Matt Youmans can be reached at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. He co-hosts “The Las Vegas Sportsline” weekdays at 2 p.m. on ESPN Radio (1100 AM). Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.