{"id":108415,"date":"2026-04-13T13:29:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/after-dominant-regular-season-thunder-big-favorite-to-hold-onto-nba-crown\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:29:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:29:43","slug":"after-dominant-regular-season-thunder-big-favorite-to-hold-onto-nba-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/after-dominant-regular-season-thunder-big-favorite-to-hold-onto-nba-crown\/","title":{"rendered":"After dominant regular season, Thunder big favorite to hold onto NBA crown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\" w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/26549159.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/26549159.jpg\" alt=\"NBA: Finals-Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Jun 22, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder team owner Clay Bennett and the team hold up the Larry O&#8217;Brien Championship Trophy after being announced NBA Champions at the end of game seven of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>Oddsmakers really like Oklahoma City Thunder to continue their reign over the NBA and successfully defend their championship.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>The Thunder, who concluded the regular season on Sunday with the league&#8217;s best record at 64-18 (.780), are the clear favorite to keep the Larry O&#8217;Brien Trophy at a range of +110 to +135, according to a survey of sportsbooks on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>Conversely, the Portland Trail Blazers, playing beyond the regular season for the first time since the 2020-21 season, have the most convincing to do. The eighth seed in the Western Conference, Portland has a play-in game against the Phoenix Suns and is the biggest underdog to make it all the way and win the NBA Finals, with some odds at +250000.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>The odds closely align with the records, as the San Antonio Spurs (62-20, .756) have the second-best odds at +450 to +550.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>The Boston Celtics (56-26), fortified by the solid return of star Jayson Tatum from a ruptured Achilles in last year&#8217;s playoffs, are the next favorite. The Detroit Pistons (60-22) had the better regular season but perhaps not the track record of recent playoff runs compared to their Eastern Conference rival, who won the NBA title two seasons ago.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>DraftKings has the defending champion Thunder at +110, followed by the Spurs at +500, Celtics at +550 and Nuggets at +950.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>Then there&#8217;s a jump to the Cleveland Cavaliers (+1600), New York Knicks (+1800) and Pistons (+2200).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>The longest odds of the 20 teams are for the Trail Blazers at +200000. DraftKings favors the seventh-seeded Suns downing eighth-seeded Portland with a 4.5-point spread in their play-in game on Tuesday in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>FanDuel also likes Oklahoma City to repeat as the NBA champion (+115), with San Antonio and Boston next (each at +550), then Denver and Cleveland (each at +1100) and New York (+1800).<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>Here, Portland is at +75000 along with Phoenix and Miami as the three teams with the longest odds.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>FanDuel takes the next step by putting odds on the finalists, with a Celtics-Thunder matchup the favorite (+330), which follows the conference breakdown of the overall winner odds.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>The Thunder represent the Western Conference in the top four favored matchups, against the Cavaliers (+550), Knicks (+850) and Pistons (+900). Those predicting a Celtics-Spurs final can get +1000 odds, and Cavs-Spurs at +1500.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>The longest odds are +75000 for Cavs-Warriors, Knicks-Lakers, Knicks-Clippers, Knicks-Warriors and Pistons-Lakers.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">\n<p>Take the extra step and pick the matchup and winner, and that&#8217;s the Thunder over the Celtics at +500. A Boston series win over Oklahoma City is at +1200 odds.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">\n<p>Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA MVP, is favored to repeat as NBA Finals MVP at +135. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is next at +500.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>BetMGM likes the Thunder to win it all at +135, followed by the Spurs (+450), Celtics (+550), Nuggets (+1000) and Cavaliers (+1400). The Trail Blazers have the longest odds at +250000.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-17\">\n<p>NBA FINALS WINNER ODDS (DraftKings)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-18\">\n<p>Oklahoma City (+110)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-19\">\n<p>San Antonio (+500)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-20\">\n<p>Boston (+550)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-21\">\n<p>Denver (+950)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-22\">\n<p>Cleveland (+1600)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-23\">\n<p>New York (+1800)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-24\">\n<p>Detroit (+2200)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-25\">\n<p>Houston (+6000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-26\">\n<p>Minnesota (+9000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-27\">\n<p>Atlanta (+13000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-28\">\n<p>Philadelphia (+17000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-29\">\n<p>Charlotte (+17000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-30\">\n<p>Los Angeles Lakers (+25000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-31\">\n<p>Toronto (+25000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-32\">\n<p>Orlando (+35000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-33\">\n<p>Phoenix (+60000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-34\">\n<p>Los Angeles Clippers (+70000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-35\">\n<p>Miami (+70000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-36\">\n<p>Golden State (+80000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-37\">\n<p>Portland (+200000)<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-38\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/after-dominant-regular-season-thunder-big-favorite-to-hold-onto-nba-crown\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jun 22, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder team owner Clay Bennett and the team hold up the Larry O&#8217;Brien Championship Trophy after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}