The Cleveland Cavaliers will take a six-game straight-up winning streak into their Christmas Day clash with the Golden State Warriors, in a battle of NBA championship betting favorites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Cleveland leads the NBA’s Eastern Conference with a 19-7 straight-up record, lifting it to 3-1 on the odds to win the title, but has proven to be a betting disappointment this season at 11-15 against the spread heading into Friday afternoon’s Cavaliers vs. Warriors betting matchup at Oracle Arena.
The Cavaliers are a middling 6-6 SU and 5-7 ATS on the road but should have little difficulty getting up for their meeting with the Warriors, who knocked them off in last season’s NBA Finals.
Powered by their record-setting 24-game win streak to start the season, the Warriors have charged to the top of the NBA championship odds, perched as 5-4 chalk.
SU winners in seven of their last nine regular season dates with the Cavaliers, the Warriors entered their Wednesday night tilt with the Utah Jazz with a league-leading 116 points per game, forcing the point total over in 10 of their last 11 outings.
Also on Friday, the Chicago Bulls will try to halt a three-game SU and ATS losing streak when they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder. Chicago has yet to find consistency this season, bouncing between winning and losing streaks throughout December and eroding its stock on the NBA championship odds, where it has dropped to 28-1.
The Thunder have won eight straight SU on their home floor, 13 of 16 overall, to lift their NBA championship odds to 7-1 and have won five straight at home over the Bulls according to the OddsShark NBA Database.
The Miami Heat will look for just their third SU win in their last six home games when they host the struggling New Orleans Pelicans on Christmas Day. The Heat’s 16-11 SU record leaves them solidly in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, but they remain stalled in NBA futures betting at 33-1.
The Pelicans were expected by many to have a breakthrough this season, but it has not worked out that way. New Orleans picked up just its ninth SU win of the season Wednesday, knocking off Portland 115-89, and has tumbled to a distant 500-1 in NBA championship betting.
In other NBA odds action on Christmas Day, the San Antonio Spurs bring the NBA’s best defense to Houston when they take on the Rockets, while the Los Angeles Clippers will try to halt a three-game SU losing streak and boost their fading NBA championship odds when they battle the Los Angeles Lakers.
Thumbnail photo via Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports Images
