The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors both went through enough of a scare in their conference finals, as they came back from 3-2 deficits. But there is no question about who plays the favorite's role as these teams get together in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, scheduled to go off at 9:05 PM ET at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. This one will be seen live on ABC, and while they are watching it, BetAnySports customers can get their fill of real- time wagering action as they access the state-of-the-art software of Live Betting Ultra.

Cleveland had to go the full seven games in two different series – against the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics – and once again, it was largely the heroics of LeBron James that brought them through this point. James is averaging almost 34 points per game during the playoffs, and in only one playoff series has another member of the Cavaliers averaged more than 12.5 points per contest. That's Kevin Love, who was still iffy for this game with his concussion issues. If Love can play, that affords Cleveland an opportunity to utilize his inside-outside game, and obviously is a very effective big man when it comes to grabbing defensive rebounds and triggering the break. If they DON'T have Love, the Cavs might be better on the defensive end, and might in fact able to play "small ball" with the Warriors more effectively. The thing is, Cleveland can't have everything at once.

But there's an opening, because Golden State will be without Andre Iguodala, their former NBA Finals MVP, who is out of this game with a lateral bone bruise in his leg. Iggy had started 12 consecutive games before having to leave the lineup, and the defending champs had some very anxious moments in the four games he was out.

But as they exit the locker room for the third quarter, Golden State appears to be "death," no matter who they are using. In fact, in those final two games against Houston, where they had to overcome deficits of 17 and 15 points, respectively, they outscored the Rockets by a total of 66-31 in third period action. That was a tremendous difference-maker as they came back to win the last two games and advance.

But if it comes down to crunch time, the Cavs could be a dangerous crew indeed. We'll expand on that.

In the NBA playoff betting odds at BetAnySports on Game 1 of the Finals, the Warriors are big favorites:

Golden State Warriors -13
Cleveland Cavaliers +13

Over 214.5 points -110
Under 214.5 points -110

With the Cavaliers, the discussion begins and often ends with James, who has to be somewhat exhausted by now, having played 46 and 48 minutes over the final two games of the series against Boston. Against a team like Golden State, he is required to be more of a two-way player, because of the plethora of weapons the W's have at their disposal, and he may wind up subconsciously taking some time off on the defensive end, out of necessity. It will depend on how much the supporting cast is able to contribute, as we keep in mind that the Cavs have been outscored by 8.8 points per 100 possessions when LeBron is getting a rest (clue: Maybe he won't get a rest at all).

We all kind of know what shooters like Kyle Korver and JR Smith are capable of, and we know that there is some other artillery the team has aside from LeBron. The question is how big a role head coach Tyronn Lue and LeBron are going to allow them to play. One matchup to watch will be George Hill and Steph Curry, on both ends of the floor. Not that Hill can stop Curry, but he can stick with him for a while, and we'll see what kind of job Curry can do on the defensive end against him. Cleveland has won seven of eight games during this post-season when Hill has tallied at least ten points.

One thing the Cavaliers would like to do is keep this thing close until the latter stages of the fourth quarter. They have demonstrated themselves to be comfortable with these situations, as they have a 7-1 straight-up records when the game is within five points, either way, at the point in the fourth quarter when there are five minutes left. Sure, G-State has outscored its opponents by an AVERAGE of 5.1 points in the third quarter. But they haven't owned the fourth quarter by any means. In fact, they have only outscored their opposition by a TOTAL of six points all season. And in those "five or less, five minutes left" situations, G-State has shot 26.3% overall from the field and 14.3% in triples, in what has admittedly been a rather small sampling.

But this thought keeps lingering - the Warriors, without Iguodala, lost two straight games to Houston, then needed two monumental collapses by a team playing without a legitimate All-Star and future Hall of Famer to get here. Use some perspective - the Rockets had a 25-point second half in Game 6, scoring just 46 points after the first quarter, and then missed 27 triples in a row in Game 7, which, according to the folks at FiveThirtyEight.com, had a 1-in-72,000 chance of happening. So this Golden State team, though clearly better than Cleveland, is not completely unstoppable. If you look at things that way, you might want to get on the side of the points here, especially if the Cavs can take them deep into the final period.

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