On Monday, the world of bookmaking got an earthshaking news when the Supreme Court finally decided to legalize sports betting in the United States. The decision is expected to have enormous repercussions to sports. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has obviously started to feel its effect when he jokingly told reporters he’s going to lay money on his team’s 1.5-point spread as an underdog in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Houston Rockets, per Melissa Rohlin of the Bay Area New Group.
Steve Kerr on being the undersogs in Vegas in Game 1 of the WCF: "I'm taking the Warriors, plus 1 1/2. I read that whole story about gambling this morning, so now I guess I'm about to oust my picks."
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) May 14, 2018
The lines for the game opened with the Warriors installed as two-point underdogs on most sportsbooks, but the surge of bets on Golden State has taken half a point from the team’s spread.




The Warriors have been shaky on the road of late. Both their only losses in these playoffs thus far happened away from Oakland. Moreover, the defending NBA champions have covered the spread just once in their last three road games. Going back to the regular season, the Warriors are 5-5 against the spread in their last 10 games as the visiting team.
One trend that would boost the confidence of Warriors bettors in Game 1 is that Golden State has covered the spread in Houston in four of its last five trips there.
The Rockets, on the other hand, haven’t been that reliable lately for spread bettors when the team is in Houston. In fact, they failed to cover the spread in each of their last two games at Toyota Center (both against the Utah Jazz).