Oklahoma City Thunder, Favorites in the NBA Finals
The Oklahoma City Thunder are shaping up to be one of the teams with the highest probability of winning the NBA Finals in the last two decades.
According to the bookmakers, the Thunder started as favorites with odds of -750 against the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers, for their part, began as underdogs with odds of +525.Since 2005, only the 2018 Golden State Warriors (-1075 against the Cleveland Cavaliers) presented lower odds before the Finals than this year’s Thunder. Game 1 will be played on Thursday in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder are favored by 9 points.
Oklahoma City secured their place in the Finals by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, marking their return to this stage for the first time since 2013. They will face a Pacers team that started the season with a 50-1 odds to win the title, but performed outstandingly in the playoffs, eliminating the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Pacers, with an initial odds of 50-1, would be the team with the highest chances of winning the championship in the last 40 years. However, history does not favor them.
In the last 50 years, only two teams that started the Finals with odds of at least +200 as underdogs managed to win their series: the 2004 Detroit Pistons (+500) and the 2019 Toronto Raptors (+230).
