More than one-third of the way through the 2013-14 season, I decided to take a look at the odds to win the NBA Championship (via Sportsbook.ag).
While it should come as no surprise that the Miami Heat (3/2) have the lowest odds to win it all and the Pacers (3/1) are second, I am surprised a little bit by the Eastern Conference team that is third.
Before I get to that, the next seven teams (after the Heat/Pacers) all reside in the Western Conference: Thunder (6/1), Spurs (8/1), Clippers (12/1), Rockets, Blazers and Warriors (all 15/1) and Timberwolves (50/1).
Next in line are the Grizzlies and Mavs (60/1), who are tied with the Toronto Raptors.
After a slow start, a horrible one for the Atlantic Division as a whole, the Raptors are 16-16 and currently lead the division.
Even though they lost Sunday night to the Heat, the Raptors had won their previous five games and have won seven of their past nine games. The Raptors will get another tough game as they head to Indiana on Tuesday to take on the Pacers.
Shooting guard DeMar DeRozan continues to develop his game as he leads the team in scoring with a career-high 21.1 points per game. In addition, point guard Kyle Lowry is averaging 7.6 assists per game, which ranks ninth in the league, and 15.7 points per game, both of which are career highs.
Despite their horrible starts, however, the Nets are 2-0 and the Knicks are 2-1 so far in January. (The Knicks' loss was a two-point loss to the Rockets in Houston.)
It will be interesting to see if the Nets and/or Knicks can continue to turn around things now that the calendar has turned to 2014. Going into the season, the expectations for both teams were certainly much higher than those for the Raptors.
Right now, however, the Nets and Knicks both have 150/1 odds to win the NBA title.
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