Odds to win the 2008 NBA Championship: Celtics and Lakers favorite

Odds to win the 2008 NBA Championship: Celtics and Lakers favorite The NBA regular season is over and punters all over the world turn their attention to the playoffs and the 2008 NBA Championship. Quite a few teams surprisingly made the cut into this season's playoffs but a few of the NBA teams are already getting most of the attention.

The Boston Celtics are the ultimate favorite to win the 2008 NBA Championship, listed with odds 3/2 at the online sportsbook BodogSports. Boston has long held short odds on winning the title, but after the regular season their numbers were drastically cut down to the current 3/2 and their Eastern conference playoff battle with the Atlanta Hawks could further slash the odds on the Celtics, considering Atlanta is the underdog of the 2008 NBA Championship with the whopping odds of 150/1 to win. The fact that the Boston Celtics managed the biggest turnaround in history (adding 41 wins to their record last season) is enough to make the odds makers comfortable with this basketball franchise.

But the 2008 NBA Championship title does not appear guaranteed for the Boston Celtics. In the Western Conference we find the second most likely team to win the Championship - the Los Angeles Lakers, listed with the marginally longer odds to win the 2008 NBA Championship, 3/1 at the online bookmaker BodogSports. Even though the Lakers have not won a playoff series since 2004, this year they are riding the favorite odds to go all the way to the end. In their playoffs opening round the Los Angeles Lakers will meet the Denver Nuggets and the matchup between Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson will decide the outcome of this game, according to experts. The Nuggets are holding though odds 40/1 to win the 2008 NBA Championship, but four wins against the Lakers would guarantee an immense odds-shortening. Still, a very small percentage of the punters are taking the Nuggets against the Lakers.

Other teams with good chances to win the 2008 NBA Championship are the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons. The Spurs will rely on Tim Duncan to overpower Shaquille O'Neal and the Phoenix Suns in their first playoff game, a tough job, and the Spurs vs. Suns game is likely to get the most attention from bettors in the opening rounds of the NBA playoffs. This will be a make-or-break game for many punters, considering the San Antonio Spurs are holding odds to win the 2008 NBA Championship of 6/1, but the Phoenix Suns are right behind with 8/1 odds at BodogSports. And between these two Western powerhouses one can find the Detroit Pistons with odds 7/1 on winning the NBA Championship. Many focused their attention on the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference, but the Pistons quietly completed the second-best record in the league and will have a considerably easy game in the opening round of the playoffs, where Detroit will meet the Philadelphia 76ers, another big underdog with odds 100/1. Philadelphia's point guard Andre Miller will have the hard job to counter the damage Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace are about to bring, and even though Detroit and Philadelphia settled on a 2-2 record in the regular season, the Pistons are expected to take no hostages in this playoff matchup.

Here is the full list of odds to win the 2008 NBA Championship, as published by the online sportsbook BodogSports:

Atlanta Hawks - 150/1
Boston Celtics - 3/2
Cleveland Cavaliers - 25/1
Dallas Mavericks - 16/1
Denver Nuggets - 40/1
Detroit Pistons - 7/1
Houston Rockets - 25/1
Los Angeles Lakers - 3/1
New Orleans Hornets - 11/1
Orlando Magic - 25/1
Philadelphia 76ers - 100/1
Phoenix Suns - 8/1
San Antonio Spurs - 6/1
Toronto Raptors - 80/1
Utah Jazz - 12/1
Washington Wizards - 70/1.

Published on 04/18/2008