OKC remain title betting faves; Spurs, C's follow

The Oklahoma City Thunder will head into the NBA Playoffs as large favorites to repeat as league champions, but the betting public will be more focused on the teams just below them on the odds board.

The Thunder are +110 to win the NBA Finals, followed by the San Antonio Spurs (+500) and Boston Celtics (+550) in the next tier, with the Denver Nuggets (+900) rounding out the group of favored teams, according to DraftKings odds. There is a sizable gap on the odds board before the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks check in at 17-1 and 18-1, respectively.

The top four all have considerable bets and handle across the sportsbook marketplace, but Oklahoma City and Denver are largely not liabilities due to their relatively short odds all season.

"Among the true contenders, OKC is the best result on the futures market," BetMGM sports trader Anthony Parenti said in an email release. "The sportsbook is in the enviable position of getting to cheer for the favorite to win it all."

The Thunder are not the top ranked team by handle at either DraftKings or BetMGM. Instead, San Antonio and Boston have become larger liabilities, namely because they started the season off as long shots and morphed into contenders, giving bettors the opportunity to grab them at big prices throughout the campaign.

The Spurs have been up-and-coming since drafting superstar Victor Wembanyama first overall in 2023, and with Wemby staying relatively healthy, 2025-26 proved to be their breakout season. Bookmakers were initially conservative on San Antonio, with DraftKings assigning them only 65-1 championship odds going into the campaign.

Bettors sensed the breakout and piled on early and often: The Spurs are the highest attractor of NBA Finals winner handle, as well as Western Conference winner tickets, at BetMGM and DraftKings. Even as many bookmakers tried to get ahead of the trend, the public kept lining up to back Wembanyama and company.

"I can't imagine what some other books' liability sheets look like on them because they were 50-to-1-plus for most of the year," Caesars Sportsbook lead NBA trader David Lieberman told ESPN. "We were super aggressive in lowering them because Wembanyama was playing so well, and we still have quite a bit of money on them. So I'm not sure what else we could have done, but it's one of those things where people are going to bet the Spurs based on how they looked no matter what."