Winners Club: One Final Look at the Celtics-Warriors Finals Matchup

Plus Lightning-Rangers Game 1, Tommy Pham and Joc Pederson’s fantasy football beef and more.

Good morning! After a month and a half of playoff basketball and a seven-game Eastern Conference finals, the championship matchup is set. It’s the computers vs. Vegas, err, Celtics vs. Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals. The models are high on Boston, but Golden State is and has been the title favorite on the sportsbooks. More on that later.

In the NHL, the conference finals began Tuesday with a high-scoring affair. The Avalanche took a 1-0 series lead at home with an 8-6 win over the Oilers and the East Final gets going tonight in New York when the Rangers host the Lightning. We’ve got series previews and betting lines for that, too.

Keep reading for hoops and hockey news and insight on a fantasy football dispute that ended with one MLB player slapping an opponent.

Warriors Favored to Beat Celtics in Finals

Boston and Golden State will meet in the championship for the first time since 1964. This version of the Warriors has been here before, many times actually. This is their sixth Finals trip in eight years.

No one on the Celtics has ever played in a Finals game. It’s new territory for first-year coach Ime Udoka and his team’s young core, which made a phenomenal midseason turnaround.

Let’s recount how each of these teams made it here in the first place.

No. 3 Golden State beat back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokić's No. 5 Nuggets in five games in Round 1 and passed the Suns as Finals favorites in the process. The second round brought on the No. 2 Grizzlies, who pushed the Warriors to six games in a series that featured 30-point wins for each team and injuries to Ja Morant and Gary Payton II. And in the Western Conference finals, Golden State faced Luka Dončić and No. 4 Dallas and ultimately put the Mavericks away in five games. Now, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are back to continue their dynasty, reinforced with the likes of Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins.

Wilfredo Lee/AP

No. 2 Boston did not dodge the sleeping giant that was No. 7 Brooklyn. The Celtics refused to let what was tabbed as one of the most anticipated first-round matchups even become a contest—they swept Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving’s Nets soundly, the only 4-0 series of the postseason. Next up was the defending champions. Boston erased a 2-1 deficit against No. 3 Milwaukee and Giannis Antetokounmpo and battled back to force a Game 7 on its home court, which it won soundly. And finally, the Celtics got their rematch with the No. 1 Heat. The two teams traded blowouts for much of the seven-game series until Boston stole Game 7 in Miami to head back to the Finals for the first time in over a decade.

Some predictive models have been high on the Celtics’ young duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as well as the team’s defense-first approach, headed by DPOY Marcus Smart, for some time now. It’s time to see whether those models inflated Boston’s chances or if they were simply the first to pick the champs.

Thursday
9 p.m. ET (ABC): Celtics vs. Warriors (-3.5) | Game 1

Jeff Chiu/AP

NBA Finals Winner:
Warriors -161
Celtics +130

Finals MVP:
Steph Curry -111
Jayson Tatum +175
Jaylen Brown +1000
Draymond Green +1200
Klay Thompson +1400

Get your complete 2022 NBA Finals Betting Preview here.

Lightning-Rangers ECF Begins Tonight

Tampa Bay and New York face off at Madison Square Garden tonight in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lightning have been idle since May 23, when they completed their sweep of the Panthers. The Rangers, meanwhile, went to a Game 7 for the second series in a row and beat the Hurricanes 6-2 on Monday to advance.

Out West, the Avalanche and Oilers opened the Western Conference Final with a blistering offensive showing. The teams combined for 14 goals in an 8-6 Colorado win. The Avalanche were even money to win the Stanley Cup heading into the series and moved to -105 overnight with the victory.

Wednesday
8 p.m. ET (ESPN): Lightning (-133) vs. Rangers | Game 1

Thursday
8 p.m. ET (TNT): Oilers vs. Avalanche (-188) | Colorado leads series, 1-0

Chris Seward/AP

Stanley Cup Futures Odds:
Avalanche -105
Lightning +220
Rangers +520
Oilers +950

Find the conference finals schedules here and series betting previews here.

A Fantastic Fantasy Football Fight

It’s been a few days, but the ludicrous Tommy Pham-Joc Pederson fantasy football dispute is worth bringing back up after the long weekend.

Here’s the breakdown of what we know:

• Prior to the Giants-Reds game last Friday, Pham slapped Pederson in the outfield over what was revealed to be a disagreement stemming from a fantasy football league.
• Pham was suspended three games for the altercation, which was caught on video.
• Pederson believed Pham was “cheating” by manipulating the waiver wire.
• Pederson also revealed he sent a GIF in the group chat making fun of the Padres, Pham’s former team, which he apologized for.
• Pham’s anger seemingly stemmed from the stakes involved. He said there was “too much money on the line” and called himself a “big dog in Vegas.”
• Pham then dropped out of the league which “had a lot of money involved in it,” according to Pederson.
• This all came to a head on Friday when the months-old beef was resolved (or escalated) on the field, in the dead of the NFL offseason and in the middle of the MLB season.
• After the fallout, three-time MVP Mike Trout, who was apparently the commissioner of the now-infamous league, was criticized by Pham for his handling of the situation.

So there you have it; professional athletes are just like us. I don’t recommend following Pham’s fantasy football management tactics or means of evening the score. Here's some advice courtesy of Matt De Lima on how not to get slapped whilst playing fantasy football, something I never knew was necessary!

If you're not interested in the theatrics and just want to prep for your draft, I recommend you read Shawn Childs’s team outlooks. He just wrapped up the AFC South with the Titans 2022 preview Wednesday.

Next up is the loaded AFC West. You're going to want to read up on the division that added Davante Adams, Russell Wilson, Khalil Mack, J.C. Jackson, Randy Gregory and JuJu Smith-Schuster this offseason.

Mark Humphrey/AP

The regular season is fast approaching, and Conor Orr celebrated us being 100 days out from the kickoff game (now 99) with 100 bold predictions for the 2022 season.

Here are some of the boldest:

• Najee Harris will lead the NFL in rushing.
• Tom Brady will affirm his desire to play in 2023 … but not necessarily in Tampa.
• The Browns will win fewer than 10 games.
• Christian McCaffrey will be traded at some point in 2022.

In Other News

Dodgers Retain Top Spot in Latest MLB Power Rankings: Los Angeles once again checks in at No. 1, followed by the two New York teams, the Yankees and Mets. The Dodgers have the best run-differential in baseball (+116) and remain the World Series favorites (+400).

Rafael Nadal Beats Novak Djokovic in French Open: Nadal and Djokovic met in the quarterfinals on Wednesday and Nadal won in four sets. His win brought their career head-to-head record even closer—Djokovic still leads, 30-29.

Joel Embiid Undergoes Surgery on Injured Thumb: The 76ers All-NBA center had surgery to repair his right thumb, which he injured during the postseason, and he also had a procedure on his injured left index finger. He is expected to be ready for training camp.

Dustin Johnson Joins Inaugural LIV Golf Field: Johnson was a late addition to the field of 48 who will be competing in the London event. Sixteen of the top 100 ranked golfers in the world will take part in the tournament, including Louis Oosthuizen.

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Thanks for reading! I’ll be back Friday morning after Game 1 of the Finals. And remember to stay up to date with the latest from @SI Betting and @SI_Fantasy on Twitter, and you can find me @Kkylewood.