FiveThirtyEight Tabs Celtics As Big Favorites Over Warriors In NBA Finals

The Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors are set to kickoff their NBA Finals series on Thursday from Chase Center in San Francisco. But if it were up to FiveThirtyEight, the Warriors may not even want to show up.

FiveThirtyEight, a website that explores politics, sports and science topics through a lens of data, has projected that the Celtics have an 80% chance of winning the NBA Finals, the highest percentage that they’ve given any one team this season.

Bookmakers don’t necessarily agree with FiveThirtyEight, as DraftKings Sportsbook (-150), Caesars Sportsbook (-155) and BetMGM (-160) all have the Warriors as the favorites heading into the series.

This isn’t the first time that FiveThirtyEight has pointed to the Celtics as the NBA’s likely champ, as Boston led their projections all the way back in February, prior to the All-Star Weekend.

The Celtics entered this season with a 6% chance of winning the NBA Finals according to FiveThirtyEight, while the Warriors had a 0.1% chance to win on opening night.