NBA News Wire
Spurs favored to win NBA title
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The San Antonio Spurs are a slight favorite to dethrone the Miami Heat as NBA champions, according to oddsmakers Bovada.LV.
The Spurs were given 4/5 odds to win the title while the Heat are set at 21/20.
The Heat beat the Spurs in seven games in last year’s finals and were preseason favorites to win again. Miami opened the season as 2-1 favorites while San Antonio had 12-1 odds, eighth best in the NBA.
Entering last year’s finals, the Heat were heavy favorite with 5/12 odds, while San Antonio was at 2/1. They are the first pair of teams to face each other in consecutive NBA Finals since the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 1998.
While Miami is 12-3 in the playoffs, San Antonio has ousted the Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder in the tougher Western Conference.
The Spurs won an NBA-high 62 games in the regular season and received the West’s No. 1 seed. The Heat were the No. 2 seed in the East after going 54-28 in the regular season.
After using a 2-3-2 home-away schedule for 29 years, this year’s finals are changing to a 2-2-1-1-1 format.
The best-of-seven series starts Thursday in San Antonio.
