Warriors Still Favored To Win NBA Title Despite DeMarcus Cousins' Injury

Warriors Still Favored To Win NBA Title Despite DeMarcus Cousins' Injury

The Golden State Warriors remain favorites to win their third straight NBA title, despite DeMarcus Cousins suffering a season-ending injury Monday.

Apr 16, 2019 by Adam Zagoria
Warriors Still Favored To Win NBA Title Despite DeMarcus Cousins' Injury

Despite the season-ending injury to DeMarcus Cousins and despite blowing a 31-point lead to the Clippers in Game 2 of their first-round series on Monday night, the Warriors remain -220 favorites to win their third straight NBA title.

Cousins suffered a season-ending torn left quad in Monday's 135-131 loss, according to Shams Charania.

“There’s a pretty significant quad injury. ... He’s going to be out for a while," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game.

With the Raptors and 76ers both losing Game 1 of their series, the Bucks (who obliterated the Pistons) have moved from +650 to +500 in the title futures, according to mytopsportsbooks.com. The odds assumed the Sixers would win Game 2, which they did on Monday night.

The absence of Blake Griffin from the Detroit lineup due to a left knee injury has turned that series into one of the biggest mismatches in recent playoff history, meaning the Bucks will head to round two rested and rolling.

Out west, the Rockets, who beat the Jazz, 122-90, in Game 1 of their series, moved up to the third overall favorite behind Golden State and Milwaukee at +950.

The Celtics, who host the Pacers in Game 2 of their series on Wednesday, are the fourth overall favorite to win the NBA title.

In terms of potential NBA Finals matchups, the Warriors/Bucks are at 3/1 per Betonline.ag, with Warriors/Raptors at 4/1, Warriors/76ers at 10/1, and Warriors/Celtics at 40/1.


Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who runs ZAGSBLOG.com and contributes to The New York Times. Follow Adam on Twitter.