Vegas Adventures 2018: NBA Win Totals Released

My annual August Vegas trip will be far shorter than in past years -- thank real life.

And I probably won't be posting Thursday or Friday from Vegas -- in fact, the only reason I MIGHT take my computer is to have some place to charge my phone that won't cost me one arm and one leg.

But I will have my usual compliment of Vegas numbers to look at.

And today, the new Mike Greenberg show "Wake Up" actually listed seven interesting NBA over-under totals that the Westgate is opening their season with.

Here they are, with a couple thoughts:

• Warriors:  62.5  

The Warriors, according to the site I've been able to pull up (CBS Sportsline), are -200 to win the whole thing.  They won 58 last year in a year they might well have done a significant degree of regular-season tanking -- so much so, they went 16-5 when it counted.

The real question you have to ask, though, is whether Golden State is going to care enough to bother to get to 63 wins.

• Boston:  57.5
• Philadelphia:  54.5
• Toronto:  54.5

At least one of these three isn't happening.  The Eastern Conference was exposed as abysmal last year when LeBron James carried a bunch of stiffs in Cleveland to the title.  In fact, in those same CBS Sportsline odds (from the Westgate), only six NBA teams are less than 30-1!  (Boston second choice at 5-1, Philly and Toronto at 12-1)

At best, there are five semi-relevant teams, six if LeBron can get the Balls out of Los Angeles before LaVar blows it all up!  A lot of people think the East, past #4 or 5, is as abysmal, if not worse.  The only way all three of these hit, though, is if everyone past #3 tanks.  Toronto won 59 last year, Boston 55, Philly 52.

• Houston:  54.5
• Oklahoma City:  50.5

65 and 48 last year, respectively.  I don't see either of these hitting.  Harden was out of his damn mind last year, and what did it get him?  And Oklahoma City is a good second-tier team, but the gulf is getting so great...

And then there's this:

• Los Angeles:  48.5

They're saying LeBron is worth about 15 wins, because they got 35 last year.  The real question is getting rid of the Balls.  It's that simple.  We know LeBron can carry a bunch of stiffs -- we saw it last year.  I'm really verklempt on that number, though -- because of the Balls-shit.