Sports Betting Week: NBA Approaches Final Four

The second round of the NBA playoffs continues this week with the top seed in both the East and the West a win away from advancing to the conference finals, and we will soon have just four teams left to vie for this year’s NBA championship.

The playoffs have not been easy so far for the East's Indiana Pacers, who were taken to the seven-game limit against Atlanta in the opening round. However, they have suddenly won three straight games against Washington in the second round, including a 95-92 victory this past Sunday as 3.5-point road underdogs on the betting lines to take a 3-1 series lead.

Over in the West, the San Antonio Spurs have gone up 3-0 against Portland and they head into Monday night’s Game 4 as 4-point road favorites to pull off the sweep on the Bovada NBA betting odds. The Spurs needed all seven games to get by Dallas in the first round, but they have won the first three games of this series by a combined 56 points.

The Miami Heat won the first two games of their best-of-seven series against Brooklyn, but the Nets cut that lead in half with Saturday’s 104-90 victory as 1-point underdogs at home. The betting odds for Monday night’s Game 4 have the Heat listed as 2.5-point road favorites to take a commanding 3-1 lead.

The other series in the West between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Oklahoma City Thunder is all square at two games apiece after Los Angeles won Game 3 on Sunday night 101-99 as a 5-point home favorite on the closing betting lines. That series will now shift back to Oklahoma City for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

Over in Major League Baseball, the New York Mets are currently four games back of Atlanta in the NL East at 17-19, but this week they will turn their attention to an extended four-game Subway Series against the New York Yankees starting this Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

This home-and-home series will shift to Citi Field on Wednesday for the final two games. The Yankees are currently a game and a half back of Baltimore in the AL East with an overall record of 19-17. They have been opened as -150 home favorites on the 5Dimes MLB betting odds for Monday’s series opener.