Brooklyn Now +200 to Win NBA Championship After Taking 3-2 Lead in Series vs Bucks – Is Now the Time to Bet the Nets?

• With Brooklyn ahead of Milwaukee 3-2 after Kevin Durant’s epic game, odds on Nets winning championship now +200
• Chris Paul is in COVID protocol and Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely – should you bet the Nets before their odds get any shorter?
• What is the timeline for Kyrie Irving? Can James Harden get healthier? What about Wednesday’s other news involving playoff teams? Wagering impact explained below:

Crazy day in the NBA today. Coaches out in Washington and New Orleans. Kawhi Leonard injured in Los Angeles. Chris Paul out indefinitely because of COVID protocols. All of this before lunchtime on the East Coast.

And the gambling world reacted, with Brooklyn’s championship odds dropping to +200 following their 114-108 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks behind Kevin Durant’s epic 49-point, 17-rebound, 10-assists triple-double, his first as a member of the Nets. Brooklyn leads Milwaukee 3-2, with Game 6 Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EDT.

As we head into tonight’s Game 5s in the Philadelphia-Atlanta and the Clippers-Jazz series, here is what the current NBA championship odds look like:

2021NBA Championship Odds

Odds as of June 16th

What is the Latest News on the Nets?

Steve Nash held a Zoom news conference with the media this afternoon and said Kyrie Irving, who missed most of Game 4 and all of Game 5 because of a sprained ankle, will not play.

“Kyrie is out. James is available,” Nash said, adding that it’s unlikely Irving will travel to Milwaukee. But take that with a grain of salt.

As we learned Tuesday night when Harden was supposed to be “out,” things can change on a dime. If Kyrie stays back in New York and then wakes up Thursday and decides he wants to play, team owner Joseph Tsai has the means to get him to Milwaukee in time for tipoff.

Nash also said Durant and Harden were both feeling fine Wednesday morning after logging heavy minutes, but we have already seen that Harden’s hamstring can be fickle. His 1-for-10 performance Tuesday night showed he was far from 100 percent.

Brooklyn would love nothing more than to end this series in 6 games and have the Hawks-Sixers series go the distance, because it buys Harden, Irving and Durant rest and rehab time, which is precious – especially after Durant played all 48 minutes and Harden played 46 in Game 5.

At full strength Brooklyn is probably the best team in the entire NBA, but we have a whole bunch of playoffs ahead of us and the Nets, worthy favorites in theory, are probably worth backing off at such a short price.

🎬 | No quit on the court, no quit in the crowd.#NETSLEVEL pic.twitter.com/bOzjKnuEbG

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) June 16, 2021

How Does Wednesday’s Other News Impact the Market?

Kawhi Leonard has a knee sprain and is out for tonight and perhaps for the rest of the series. It is questionable whether the Clippers can even win a game without him, especially playing in Salt Lake City tonight against the Jazz, who had the NBA’s best home record (31-5) during the regular season. The line moved from Utah -2.5 to Utah -7, because when you take away a guy who can do the following you pretty much gut a very good and resilient team:

.@kawhileonard had the web talking about this one. pic.twitter.com/tnYhqcC5Iz

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) June 15, 2021

And then we have Chris Paul, who is suddenly in the NBA’s COVID protocols and is out indefinitely for reasons that as of now are unexplained. It is unclear whether CP3 is vaccinated against COVID-19, and that could impact how long he is out.

The NBA’s rules for coronavirus-related isolation periods have evolved throughout the season in correlation with increasing vaccine numbers. If Paul is already vaccinated against COVID-19, he could be facing a shorter absence.

Phoenix is awaiting the outcome of the Clippers-Jazz series, so time is on the Suns’ side. And let’s not forget that they went 3-0 against the Jazz in the regular season and were just 1-2 against the Clippers. If Paul is cleared by the time the Suns resume play, this will go down as a COVID-induced blip in a year of pandemic panic.

In the four-game sweep of the the Denver Nuggets, the 36-year-old Paul averaged 25.5 points on 61.8 percent shooting, 58.3 shooting on 3s, 100 percent shooting from the free throw line plus a 41-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The best advice for now on championship odds? Heck, roll the dice on the Atlanta Hawks at +5500. This is not the first crazy day of 2021, and when craziness is happening you should wager on the unlikely. Good luck!