With their Game 6 win over the New York Knicks on Saturday, the Indiana Pacers became just the fourth No. 4-seed to reach the NBA Finals since the expanded playoff format in 1984.
As such, they had to pull off a couple of upsets to get as far, winning series over the Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers as betting underdogs entering each. That also means they’re a big underdog against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
In fact, the Pacers are the biggest finals underdog since the Cavaliers in 2018. And where there’s a big underdog, there’s a massive favorite, and that certainly applies to OKC. The Thunder currently hold -700 odds to beat Indiana, which would tie them as the seventh-biggest finals favorite ever, according to SportsOddsHistory data that go back to 1973.
Biggest NBA Finals favorites (since 1973)
The odds are a good sign for the Thunder, as every other team to have odds of at least -700 went a combined 7-1 in the finals, with the only loser being the 2004 Lakers that marked the end of the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal era.
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