Will the primary fit in the NBA Finals be filled Thursday night? Covers talks about tonight’s matchup with Jason Simbal, vice chairman of risk management for CG Technology; Jeff Stoneback, manager of The Mirage sportsbook; and Greg Sindall, senior oddsmaker for online site SportsInteraction.Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden State Warriors: Open: Warriors -7.5; Move: Warriors -7, then back to -7.5

Defending champion Golden State is on the point of elimination from the NBA Playoffs, having dropped Games 3 and four at Oklahoma City to fall behind 3-1 within the best-of-7 Western Conference finals. In Game 4 Tuesday, the Thunder rumbled to a 118-94 victory as a 2-point home underdog, following their 133-105 wipeout of Golden State in Game 3 as a hefty 9-point home pup.

Back at home, the soldiers are again a healthy favorite.

“We took some action at the Thunder moneyline at 3-1, and thanks to that, we moved the spread right down to 7,” Simball said of CG’s books, which come with The Cosmopolitan, Venetian and M Resort. “Then we took a host of Warriors action at -7, so we moved back to 7.5. Right now, we've got four times more cash at the Warriors against the spread, but twice more at the Thunder at the moneyline.

“So a Warriors win by 1-6 points could be best for us. Even 1-7 points, for probably the most part.”

Up the Strip on the Mirage, the road has held steady at 7.5, despite a deluge of OKC cash.

“We’re taking about twice as much money at the Thunder (ATS) at this point,” Stoneback said, noting that trend might lead The Mirage to visit 7. “We also took a nice-size, five-figure bet at the Thunder moneyline, at +280. So we’ll probably be dropping that too.”

Offshore at SportsInteraction, as at CG books, the number started at 7.5, dropped to 7 and is now back as much as 7.5.

“We took some early sharp money on Oklahoma City +7.5 and taken the road down,” Sindall said. “Throughout the season, bettors would hammer Golden State at home, however the Thunder have made the betting public into believers. Nevertheless it seems like the general public has jumped back at the Golden State horse, as we started taking action at the Warriors and feature pushed that back out to -7.5.”

The total at SportsInteraction opened at 221, but is now right down to 219.5, where it also sits at CG and The Mirage.

With Oklahoma City at the verge of a sequence upset, there’s been an enormous shift within the series odds. Despite the fact that the soldiers trailed 2-1 previous to Game 4, they were still the series favorite at -125 at CG.

“There were four games left, two in each place, so the soldiers still needed to be the series favorite because they were the favourite at the road in Game 4,” Simbal said.

But that Game 4 drubbing changed everything. CG now has Golden State a +235 series underdog, needing to win three in a row, while the Thunder are a -275 favorite to achieve the NBA Finals.

Patrick Everson is a Las Vegas-based senior writer for Covers. Follow him on Twitter: @Covers Vegas.

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