Miami Heat Now Among Favourites For NBA Title

The Miami Heat have jumped to third favourites for the 2020 NBA championships following their dominant displays in the playoffs.

Led by the hard-nosed Jimmy Butler, the experience of Goran Dragic, the raw athleticism of first-time All-Star Bam Adebayo, and lights out shooting from the likes of Duncan Robinson, Jae Crowder and Tyler Herro, Erik Spoelstra’s side are beginning to look like a legitimate threat.

The Heat quickly dispatched the Indiana Pacers with a four-game sweep before going up 3-1 against the Milwaukee Bucks and, at the time of writing, were 1/9 to move past the team who won the most regular-season games in the league. The Bucks, who were among the favourites to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy this year, are 42/5 to emerge from the series with their opponents.

Milwaukee are 16/1 to win the Eastern Conference, given their predicament, while the Heat are now the favourites to do so at 5/6. The Boston Celtics are in behind at 5/2, with the Raptors attached to the same odds as they were locked at 2-2 in their own series at the time of writing.

Many of the major bookmakers in the United Kingdom are paying close attention to the NBA playoffs and fans could find odds from just about all of them. Fans would also do well to visit Freebets.com for advice on picking the right bookmaker, with tips, bonus odds and directions as it pertains to finding free bets and offers also available therein.

Miami certainly weren’t expected to do as well as they have this season but they’ve since done lots to convince folks of their title credentials. The addition of Butler did not seem like it would be enough to put them in contention and it was generally expected that the Heat would mount a challenge in the 2021/2022 season as they would be able to land a marquee free agent next summer. The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo will be out of contract then and is thought to be likely to join Miami or Toronto. However, Crowder has come in as an excellent midseason addition and is now a starter for Spoelstra – his long-distance shooting and defensive contributions have been a revelation.

Butler and the Heat seem to have different ideas and are confident in their ability to win the title now rather than later. They’re now 21/4 to win it all this season, behind the Los Angeles Lakers (11/4) and Clippers (2/1). The Celtics and Raptors are both 13/2, with the Houston Rockets 12/1 following their series-opening victory against the Lakers, who have since tied it up at 1/1.

Providing they make good on their lead over the Bucks, the Heat will advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2014, when they still had their Big 3 of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Odds should continue to shorten should that turn out to be the case in the next few days.