The NBA Playoffs will provide an enormous capper to the Memorial Day weekend on Monday night. Covers talks with Jeff Stoneback, manager of The Mirage sportsbook at the Las Vegas Strip, and an oddsmaker for online site Betnow.

Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden State Warriors – Open: Warriors -7; Move: Warriors -6.5

Oklahoma City hopes to bypass blowing a 3-1 lead within the best-of-7 Western Conference finals, after falling short in Game 5 at the road, then coming apart late in Game 6 Saturday night at home. In that contest, Golden State got an enormous game from Klay Thompson and an enormous fourth quarter from Stephen Curry to post a 108-101 victory as a 3.5-point road underdog to tie the series.

Now it goes to a Game 7, with the defending champion Warriors back on their home court.

“There’s been great two-way action,” Stoneback said. “It’s more or less interesting to look how the Thunder are going to react, after basically giving it away.”

That Game 6 giveaway left just a little mark at the Mirage, to be sure.

“We took a few six-figure bets at the Warriors, in order that didn’t end up too well for us,” Stoneback said.

The line was stuck at 7 until early this afternoon on the Mirage, when Thunder money finally pushed it down a tick to 6.5. AN ANALOGOUS situation unfolded at BetNow, which expected a large number of action at the solid favorite Warriors, but instead saw pretty even action early before giving method to OKC cash.

“The Thunder have got numerous action prior to now few hours, such a lot that they're a large wager clear of pushing the line,” BetNow’s oddsmaker said. “This is the primary time within the entire playoffs that our bettors don’t overwhelmingly pick the Warriors.”

Indeed, BetNow dropped Golden State to -6.5, with the oddsmaker saying more movement may well be at the way.

“The line could drop to 5.5 if this keeps up,” he said, while also noting the moneyline has the Thunder moving from +275 to +270 and the soldiers shifting from -335 to -330. “That’s all from action up to now few hours.”

Even because the holiday weekend wraps up in Vegas, the betting hasn’t slowed down.

“There’s rather a lot of cash at the game,” Stoneback said. “And towards tipoff, we’ll take some sizable wagers.”

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

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