As a sports bettor, vegas isn't giving the Cavs much of a chance. The series line opened at GS -260. I can't remember the last time a finals series was more than -200. Pretty insane that you can get 2/1 odds on a LeBron James team in the finals.
What's insane about that?
Outside of LBJ, who the Warriors have about 3-4 guys that they can realistically throw on LBJ for significant minutes, where do the Cavs have any kind of advantage in the series?
Both the Hawks and Bulls had suspect wing players that allowed JR Smith and Shumpert to have big moments. The Warriors can throw wing after wing on the court ... and almost all of them are better than Smith/Shumpert.
If the Cavs go with 2 bigs on the court + LBJ, the Warriors will carve them up. If the Cavs go small to match GS, they lack the explosive abilities to be able keep up.
This series is going 5 games. It may be a relatively close 5 games ... but the Warriors are one of the top 10-15 teams to ever play the game:
In season long point differential per game, they rank 8th all time as one of the 8 teams in the HISTORY of the league to have an average differential of more than 10 points per game. Of the prior 7, 6 of them won the title. The one that didn't (the 71-72 Bucks) lost to the team with the greatest point differential of all time, the 69-13 Lakers.
They won 67 games during this regular season. Only 5 teams in the history of the league have ever won more in a season. 4 of those 5 won a title (the 5th, the 72-73 Celtics lost to the Knicks in 7 who went on to win the NBA Title).
Their 39 wins at home have only been surpassed by the 85-86 Celtics for a better record. The only other teams with 39 home wins in a year were the 95-96 and 96-97 Bulls and the 09 Cavs team that lost to the Magic in the East Finals.
There will be many that look at LBJ and think he can work a miracle. But by almost every metric of dominance, this Warriors team is an all-time great team. A 5 game victory seems very likely.