i'd be willing to bet more people get buried betting series bets and chasing them given the odds.
It's the lazy gamblers looking for "easy money" that play these odds. Looking at the Pacers,they should take care of the Hawks quite easily but game 1 ML is almost at the same price as the series.
BettingWizard made a valuable point though. Bulls are a good example. They buried anyone dumb enough to bet the series at terrible odds against the 76ers but won & covered game 1.