The Eastern Conference Finals is set and it will feature the same two teams we saw last year.
The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics will battle it out for the right to play in the NBA Finals.
But this season is a little different than last year.
That is because the Heat had to make it this far through the play-in tournament.
Miami entered the postseason as the eighth seed and proceeded to upset the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks.
Now they are hoping to do the same to the Celtics.
According to Caesars Sportsbook via NBA on ESPN, the Celtics are massive favorites over the Heat to win the East.
The Celtics are heavy favorites to beat the Heat 😳 pic.twitter.com/D3Ult3JXQY
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 15, 2023
Many factors go into creating the odds to win a series.
One of the main factors is which team has the better roster.
Boston has a substantially better roster and more depth.
But the Heat have a great culture and an elite head coach in Erik Spoelstra.
Also, the Celtics have home court advantage in this series which is another reason why they are favorites.
Nonetheless, the Heat have been underdogs all postseason long.
They were not expected to get out of the first round let alone make the conference finals.
For Miami to advance they need Jimmy Butler to be the best player in the series.
He has been that so far in the playoffs, but now he will need to outduel Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Butler seems to raise his level of play in the big moments.
That will be expected of him once again.
Even though the odds are not in the Heat’s favor, they certainly have a chance to pull off the upset.
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