With four straight wins down the stretch, the Golden State Warriors achieved the best regular season record in NBA history going 73-9 straight up with a 43-46-3 record against the spread. The Warriors will try to follow up that regular season success with a second straight NBA title.
NBA Western Conference playoff odds 2016: Matchups and betting preview
The Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs lead the betting favorites at the sportsbooks for the Western Conference playoffs.
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Golden State is a -190 favorite to win the Western Conference and a -135 favorite to win the NBA championship at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. In the first round, Golden State draws the Houston Rockets (+12500), a team that came into the season as a projected contender but struggled with inconsistency and just barely made the playoffs.
This has been a good matchup for the Warriors in recent years as Golden State is 12-1 SU and 9-4 ATS in its last 13 games against the Rockets.
The San Antonio Spurs (+230 to win the West) may have an even more lopsided matchup on their hands in the first round facing off against the reeling Memphis Grizzlies (+25000). San Antonio finished with the second best record in basketball this season at 67-15 SU and 44-38 ATS and are expected to be Golden State's biggest obstacle in winning back-to-back titles.
Memphis doesn’t project out to be much of an obstacle for the Spurs, entering this series on a 1-10 SU and 4-7 ATS skid.
Hovering just below the big two in the Western Conference are the Oklahoma City Thunder, going off at +800 to win the Western Conference. The Thunder start their postseason off against the Dallas Mavericks (+12500), a team that strung together an impressive 7-2 SU and 6-3 ATS run down the stretch including four outright upsets to advance to the postseason.
With Chandler Parsons out, the Mavericks will likely have trouble keeping up with the NBA’s second highest scoring offense (110.2 points per game) led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
In the opening game of what should be the most competitive series in the Western Conference's first round, the Los Angeles Clippers (+1600 to win the West) host the Portland Trail Blazers (+7500) in Game 1 this Sunday. The Clippers are 6-2 SU and 4-4 ATS in their last eight games against Portland per the OddsShark NBA Database.
