NBA Finals: Ticket prices through the roof, Warriors heavily favored over Cavs

The first three rounds of the NBA postseason have apparently made the oddsmakers rethink their initial prognostications.

While the Cleveland Cavaliers opened the playoffs as odds-on favorites, now that they've emerged from the Eastern Conference - with a 12-2 playoff record, no less - they've been relegated to underdog status, with the Golden State Warriors pegged as the likely champions.

(Courtesy: Bovada)

The Warriors went 12-3 in their march through the Western Conference, a field peppered with far more arduous obstacles than the one the Cavs tromped through.

In any case, this year's MVP meeting the guy who'd won the award in four of the previous six seasons to determine a champion apparently makes for a pretty serious draw.

Here's what the average ticket is going for in the first five games of the Finals, as compared to the last two years:

(Courtesy: CBS Sports)

There's reason for the early excitement. It's the fifth consecutive NBA Final for LeBron James, but his first with the Cavaliers since 2007, while Steph Curry and the Warriors represent arguably his most formidable foe yet. A Warriors win would cement their status as one of the greatest teams of all time. A Cavs win would likely be the most impressive achievement of James's career.

Some oddsmakers are also clearly taking Kyrie Irving's lingering knee injury seriously. By at least one book's thinking, he's got the same odds of being the leading Finals scorer as Tristan Thompson does.

That said, Bovada still gives him the fourth-best shot at winning Finals MVP.

It should come as no surprise that James and Curry are considered the runaway favorites to claim the honor, but if you ask us, J.R. Smith is looking like a pretty solid value bet at 75-to-1.