The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 after dispatching the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. They will face the Indiana Pacers, who knocked off the New York Knicks in six games on Saturday night, and the Thunder are overwhelming favorites in the series. In fact, Oklahoma City is the biggest Finals favorite in franchise history.
The Thunder opened as -800 favorites in the NBA Finals at BetMGM, with the Pacers as +550 underdogs.
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Oklahoma City was a -175 favorite back in the 2012 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, but ended up losing the series in five games. The Seattle SuperSonics were -140 favorites in the 1978 NBA Finals against the Washington Bullets, per Sports Odds History.
The biggest favorites in NBA Finals history were the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, who were -2000 against the Philadelphia 76ers and won the series in five games. The 2018 champion Golden State Warriors were the second biggest of all time as -1075 favorites over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Who were the biggest favorites to lose in the Finals? Well, that again would be the Lakers, who fell as -700 favorites to the 2004 Detroit Pistons.
Oklahoma City has arguably been the best team in the league all season, going 68-14 in the tough Western Conference to earn the No. 1 seed, which included a historic 55-23-4 record against the spread in the regular season — the best ATS mark in 35 seasons.
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While the Thunder have struggled against the spread in the postseason (7-9 ATS), they have been impressive and won games when it has mattered most — winning Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets in the conference semifinals and hitting clutch shot after clutch shot in Game 4 against the Timberwolves in the last round.
The Pacers are in the NBA Finals for only the second time in franchise history (in 2000 they lost to the -800 favorite Los Angeles Lakers in six games) and have been impressive in the postseason, winning seven games outright as underdogs. Indiana was a -190 favorite at sportsbooks in its Round 1 series against a banged-up Milwaukee Bucks team, before being underdogs (+425 series price) against the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Knicks (+135) in the last two rounds.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals is 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday on ABC. The Thunder are 9-point home favorites with a total of 229.5.
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