Kings are getting historically disrespected vs. Warriors

The Warriors might have won fewer games than the Kings, and had significantly worse vibes throughout the regular season, but oddsmakers have installed Golden State as the heavy favorite in its first-round series.

One betting site had the Warriors opening as minus-300 favorites, meaning a $100 bet would net just $33.33. As one sports gambling analyst noted, a No. 6 seed hasn't been that heavily favored since at least 1990. The underdog Kings opened at plus-230 to win the series.

The odds have been bet down a bit at the beginning of the week, but the Warriors remain clear Vegas favorites, as DraftKings, Caesars and FanDuel have them at minus-290, minus-275 and minus-260, respectively, as of Tuesday morning. PointsBet, for what it’s worth, has dropped them to minus-250.

It's not just that the Warriors are a popular team with a big volume of bets placed on them. The models give the Kings little chance of pulling the “upset,” too. At minus-300, the Warriors' implied probability of winning the series would be 75%. That's actually kinder to the Kings than, for example, 538's model. Nate Silver's site gives Sacramento just an 18% chance of advancing to the second round, the second-worst of any team not in the play-in.

For a fan base that perceives constant disrespect from national media, this is perhaps a pleasant surprise since it would be easy to believe in the upstart Kings based on this past season alone, as some already declared.

The obvious reasons are the Warriors' decent form (8-2 to close it out — just don't look at their opponents) and playoff experience. On one side is Golden State, an organization with a core group of players who have won multiple titles. Even the team's youth have championship experience with what happened last year. On the other side is Sacramento, a franchise that last saw the playoffs three presidential administrations ago and employs a roster mostly made up of players who weren’t even 10 years old when it last happened.

This isn’t to say it will be a cakewalk of a first round, but things are certainly coming up Milhouse for Golden State. Given what the Warriors have gone through this season, being strong favorites in the first round is a pretty good place to start the playoffs.