Both teams have had nearly a week to rest before Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and the biggest benefactor of the long layoff is the Boston Celtics. It was confirmed on Wednesday that Kristaps Porziņģis will return after missing the last 10 Celtics playoff games. He suffered a calf injury on April 29 in the first round against the Miami Heat, but now he is fit enough to play.
Porziņģis was asked this week if he was 100%, and he responded, “Good question. I don’t know. We’ll see.”
The Latvian star averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds this season, and at 7-foot-2, he is a valuable defender for Boston in the paint.
At home, with an almost 100% Porziņģis, with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown playing great basketball, and with the team an impressive 12-2 in the playoffs, the Celtics are 6.5-point favorites to win Game 1.
Boston was the best team in the NBA from the beginning, starting the regular season 11-2 and finishing 14 games clear of the second seed in the Eastern Conference, the New York Knicks. They finished the regular season as the NBA’s No. 1 offense and No. 3 defense.
Boston goes into the series at -215 to win their 18th NBA championship.
Dallas Mavericks Road to Finals
Boston has been the NBA’s best since the season began in October. But since the Dallas Mavericks made a pair of trades in February for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, they played like the best team in the Western Conference.
Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving were joined in the starting lineup by Gafford and Washington, and Dallas went on to finish the season with 16 wins in 20 games, grabbing the fifth seed in the West.
Since the trade for the two complementary starters, Dallas is 34-14. In the playoffs, they beat the No. 1 seed in the West, Oklahoma City, and the No. 1 defense in the NBA, Minnesota.
The Celtics won both regular season meetings against the Mavericks this season. But the first one came before Dallas changed its fortunes with the February trade.
NBA Finals Game 1 Betting
In the most recent of Boston’s wins over Dallas, they jumped out to a fast start. Not surprisingly, the Race to 10 Points in the first quarter for Game 1 favors the Celtics. A bet on Boston to be the first to score 10 points pays -150. A bet on Dallas pays +125.
The betting odds also favor that at least one team will go on a 10-0 run. That bet pays -180. A 15-point run by either team pays +300.
In head-to-head player props, Dončić is favored over Tatum by 4.5 points. Tatum is favored over Irving by 3.5 points. When Brown is the Celtic in the head-to-head bet, Dončić is favored by 8.5 points, and Irving is favored by 0.5 points. Irving is favored by 7.5 points in the head-to-head with Porziņģis.
The player prop on who will finish the game as the highest scorer favors Dončić. He’s +105 to lead all scorers. Tatum is next at +230, Irving is +500, and Brown is +550. The next closest is Porziņģis at +3500. No one else is closer than +8000.
The favorite to lead the game in rebounds is Tatum at +185. A bet on Dončić pays +275.
With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.
