The Oklahoma City Thunder are a staggeringly large favorite to win the NBA Finals.
After securing a 124-94 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their Western Conference finals matchup, the Thunder are -625 at BetMGM to beat either the Indiana Pacers or New York Knicks in the Finals. If you bet $10 on the Thunder to win the Finals, you’d net $1.60 in profit if they were to win the title.
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Oklahoma City has been the best team in the NBA this season by a wide margin. The Thunder went 68-14 to secure the top seed in the West for a second straight year and had a historically good point differential. The Thunder outscored opponents by 12.9 points per game during the regular season.
That was more than half a point better than the previous record set by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971-72 season when Los Angeles outscored opponents by 12.3 points per game. Oklahoma City also finished at least 16 games ahead of every other team in the Western Conference as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his first MVP award.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points in Game 5 on Wednesday night and led the league with 32.7 points per game while also averaging 6.4 assists and 5 rebounds.
OKC’s incredible regular season was bolstered by its dominance of the Eastern Conference. And that assuredly plays a big role in the team’s status as a huge Finals favorite. Oklahoma City went 29-1 against teams from the East.
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The Thunder’s only loss to an East team came on Jan. 8 when they fell 129-122 on the road to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Eight days later, the Thunder promptly beat the Cavs by 20 at home.
Oklahoma City beat the Pacers 120-114 on the road on Dec. 26 and 132-111 at home on March 29. The Thunder beat the Knicks 117-107 at home on Jan. 3 and then by 25 a week later in a 126-101 win at Madison Square Garden.
At the moment, the Pacers are the more likely Finals opponent as Indiana has a 3-1 lead over the Knicks ahead of Game 5 in New York. The Pacers are currently +550 to win the Finals ahead of Game 5 and the Knicks are +3000.
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