Cavaliers, Warriors considered favorites to win NBA title

Photo Credit: NBA.com

The 2014-15 NBA season is past the halfway point with the league starting to shape up in terms of which teams appear to be playoff bound. There have been plenty of surprises this season with teams emerging as legitimate title contenders that no one saw coming in both conferences.

The Golden State Warriors currently lead a highly competitive Western Conference while the Atlanta Hawks have come from nowhere to sit atop the Eastern Conference. Both teams have a solid shot of going the distance come June, but only one of them is favored to do so with about 30 games left in the regular season.

As of right now, the Warriors and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers are sitting with the same odds to win the NBA title this season at 4/1, according to Sportsbook.ag. Although many anticipated the Cavs being rejuvenated by the return of hometown hero, Cleveland has only just turned the corner with head coach David Blatt’s squad starting to come together.

The Cavaliers have made some major moves since signing LeBron to turn this team back into the title contender it once was before James left for Miami. The additions of Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov have been steps in the right direction, but got off to a rocky starts with roles not being defined and players struggling in their new surroundings.

First-year head coach Steve Kerr of the Warriors was given the dream job of coming in taking over for Marc Jackson this season with a roster filled with talented young players and veterans. Stephen Curry has turned the corner and become a legitimate superstar in this league while leading a squad to 42 wins in 51 games.

With the Warriors still not even in double-digit losses with nine on the season, Golden State continues to dominate the competition with no signs of slowing down. The Memphis Grizzlies may be only four games back in the West standings, but it seems as though Curry’s crew are destine to lock up the top seed in the conference.

As for the Cavaliers, LeBron and company will have a tough road ahead to continue making up ground in the East. Cleveland is currently the fifth seed in the conference behind the Washington Wizards, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and Hawks.