By Charles Jay
Well, it is do or die time for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and many NBA Finals betting observers who have placed their wagers at Vietbet believe they have gone as far as they could possibly go with their “one-man show,” as they just seem to be riding along on fumes right now. LeBron James has done quite a bit, because he’s had to, but even a triple-double in Game 5 were not enough.
In the NBA Finals betting odds on this game by the people at Vietbet, Golden State is the road favorite:
Golden State Warriors -3.5
Cleveland Cavaliers +3.5
Over 194 points -110
Under 194 points -110
On Sunday night, the Golden State Warriors weathered a late Cleveland run and then pulled away for a 104-91 a victory that put them within one game of capturing the world championship in coach Steve Kerr’s first season at the helm. Game 6 is scheduled for 9 PM ET on Tuesday night at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, play the same configuration they offered in Game 4, when they surprised Cleveland with a small lineup. Once again, Draymond Green was the starting center, and of the Warriors fielded for players who stood around 6-foot-7. This time, however, it didn’t slow James from a scoring standpoint, as he nailed 40 points on the evening.
But Kerr was able to expose the matchup difficulties that switching lineups really poses. And he was able to get the Cavaliers away from one of their strengths in this overall dynamic, which was muscle in the middle.
It is indeed amazing that Lebron scored or assisted on 81.3% of his teams field goals. He took more than twice as many shots as anyone else on the team, and he had 11 out of the team’s 17 assists. Truth be told, this is really not an “assist” team when Lebron is operating, because it has become more and more about him, and that means plenty of isolation plays. But when you are missing all-stars like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, it almost has to be that way.
We say “almost” because there certainly has to be more of a collective effort at both ends of the floor. What Vietbet patrons may have noticed was that Kerr sat out Andrew Bogut for the entire game, and that prompted Cleveland coach David Blatt to limit Timofey Mozgov’s time severely. Mozgov, who had scored 28 points and pulled down ten rebounds in Game 4, only had nine minutes of playing time on Sunday, with ONE field goal attempt. That is a radical difference in terms of the usage of personnel. Considering that there really isn’t anyone who can guard the seven-footer in that small lineup, this may have been a bit of a mistake.
Will Blatt correct it? What will he do about some of his three-point shooters, like James Jones and Mike Miller, who played a combined 31 minutes in Game 5 and only had two field-goal attempts to show for it? Cleveland had better pull out everything but the kitchen sink if they are going to stay alive here.
Vietbet customers more wagering options on the NBA Finals than anywhere else. Remember that reduced juice wagering is available on basketball action, and there is always a quick way to make deposits, with your Visa card or through our new Bitcoin wallet!
