2022 NBA Finals MVP Odds: Luka Doncic A Live Dog

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The NBA Finals will feature two of these four teams — Golden State, Dallas, Boston, or Miami — with the playoffs down to the conference finals. That means the odds to win the NBA Finals MVP have been significantly slimmed to the standouts for those competing clubs.

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The Warriors and Celtics are the overall favourites in the NBA championship odds, so naturally big names like Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum are top of the NBA Finals MVP futures. But what about the Heat’s hardworking leader Jimmy Butler or the Mavericks’ superstar Luka Doncic, who looks like the best player in the world at this point in the postseason?

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Here’s a breakdown of the top candidates in our latest NBA Finals MVP odds update, heading into the conference finals.

2022 NBA Finals MVP odds

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Odds courtesy of DraftKings, as of May 16, 2022.

Favourite to win NBA Finals MVP

Steph Curry (+180)

The Golden State Warriors returned to the Western Conference Finals with a Game 6 victory over Memphis, putting Stephen Curry within striking distance of, weirdly, his first Finals MVP award.

Despite getting up there, Curry is still Golden State’s unquestioned alpha again and effectively averaged 26/6/5 against the Grizzlies despite being plagued by inconsistent shooting and Memphis’ tenacious defence.

With Dallas dropping No. 1 Phoenix, Curry’s MVP price slimmed from +290 to +180 heading into the Western Conference finals.

Jayson Tatum (+220) 

Tatum has emerged as an elite talent this season and his postseason performances back up that explosion. Tatum averaged almost 28 points in the seven games with Milwaukee, including a massive 46-point effort in Game 6.

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While Boston has plenty of depth on offence, Tatum has become the go-to guy in the crunch and gives the Celtics the superstar factor that every team needs to make it to the NBA Finals.

Jimmy Butler (+550)

Butler was made for the intensity of the NBA Playoffs and has led this Heat team to the finals before, losing out to the L.A. Lakers in the “Bubble Playoffs” in 2020.

He was cold blooded in Miami’s series win over Philadelphia, averaging 27.5 points and spearheading the Heat’s aggressive defence. Butler is hands down the best two-way player remaining in the playoffs.

Luka Doncic (+550)

What else can you say? Doncic has carried a crew of role players with no true No. 2 scorer all the way to the Western Conference finals. He pretty much single-handedly sunk the Suns, averaging almost 33 points per game for the series including 35 points on 12 of 19 shooting (6 of 11 from 3-point range) in Dallas’ demolition of Phoenix in Game 7.

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He’s the most dangerous scorer left in the playoffs and perhaps the best basketball player on the planet at this point in the postseason. Prove me wrong …

Understanding NBA Finals MVP odds

Sportsbooks will post NBA Finals MVP odds as early as the beginning of the playoffs. These NBA futures are constantly adjusted throughout the postseason depending on how well players perform as well as their team success. Sportsbooks will also adjust the NBA Awards odds based on handle and liability to certain players.

NBA Finals MVP odds will usually look like this:

This means that on a $100 bet, you’ll stand to win $410 if Durant takes home the NBA Finals MVP Award. If it’s close to the end of the NBA Finals and a player has stood out as the obvious MVP of the series they might have a minus sign (-) ahead of their odds like this:

This means that if you bet on LeBron to win Finals MVP, you would have needed to bet $155 to profit $100.

All of the odds listed above are in American format, but if you prefer decimal or fractional odds, simply plug them into our odds converter tool.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here