The wild landscape of the NBA’s Eastern Conference playoffs is leading to an odds anomaly.
After their second 20-point comeback in three days, the New York Knicks lead the defending champion Boston Celtics 2-0. The Knicks now head to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 on Saturday as slight favorites to win the series after their two road victories. The Knicks are -110 at BetMGM.
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However, the Knicks aren’t the East favorite. And neither are the Indiana Pacers. The Celtics still have the lowest odds of any team in the conference to head to the NBA Finals at +135 even though they’re now officially underdogs to the Knicks.
A big reason is the amount of money that’s been bet on the Celtics to win the East so far. Entering the second round, nearly 45% of the money wagered on the eventual conference champion was on the Celtics. Boston opened the series against New York as a -155 favorite to win the conference.
Boston is now +175 to win the East while the Knicks are +275. You can still see a reason for the Celtics to get back to the Finals if they can simply get back to their season averages from behind the 3-point line. Boston was 10-of-40 from behind the arc in Game 2 after shooting a staggering 15-of-60 from deep in Game 1. That’s 12 points down from the Celtics’ average. Boston shot 37% from the 3-point line during the regular season.
The Pacers, who have a 2-0 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers after their incredible comeback in Game 2, are +325 to win the conference and -190 to take down the Cavs in the second round. The Cavs, who easily got the No. 1 seed, are +350 to win the conference as they missed Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and De’Andre Hunter due to injury in Game 2. Their series odds have shifted to +155 as they need to win four of five games to advance.
Yet even though the Cavs now have the longest odds of anyone in the East to make the Finals, they still have the second-best title odds of all East teams. Cleveland is +850 to win the Finals while the Celtics are +375 and the Knicks are +1100. The Oklahoma City Thunder are still the favorites at +130 after their dominant Game 2 win over the Denver Nuggets. OKC scored a record 87 first-half points to even the series at 1-1.
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