Why you should bet on the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the NBA Playoffs
Sports News Blitz writer George Dempsey breaks down why the Oklahoma City Thunder are worth a wager this season.
With rising confidence, OKC is primed to make a serious run for the NBA Championship.
Thunder’s Championship odds and rising hype
The Oklahoma City Thunder were a lofty 9/1 shot before a ball was thrown, and it’s not surprising that basketball bettors have crashed the boards and dunked that price down to 33/20.
Other contenders include the Boston Celtics (23/10), Cleveland Cavaliers (11/2), Los Angeles Lakers (15/1), Denver Nuggets (16/1), and the Golden State Warriors (18/1).
As the deepest team in the NBA, OKC can cope without a handful of starters and still blow out most teams.
Winning 40 games long before they lost 10 was enough to tell us this group of players can fairly be labelled an elite team.
It’s worth noting they currently have the second-best net rating in NBA history, with the teams ranked first, third, fourth and fifth going on to win the Championship.
Every team that produced a net rating of 11.5 or better went on to win the Championship that year. The Thunder’s net rating sits at 12.7.
Learning from history
We’ve witnessed them beat the Celtics twice and run up a 40-point lead on the Cavaliers during what may become a 70-win season, all while battling against injuries on what feels like a nightly basis.
They’re in a league of their own when it comes to so many crucial categories on both sides of the ball, yet there’s this nagging doubt it may not be their turn yet.
The Celtics are no stranger to winning the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, yet they had to taste defeat in the 2022 finals and followed that up with a defeat in the 2023 playoffs before claiming the crown in 2024.
Everyone could see that their time was coming and it was a team built to win things before the 2022 playoffs, but history told us they’d be made to wait.
ALSO ON SNB: British and Irish Lions Tour: Australia’s key players
Patience pays off
The fact that winning a championship on the third time of trying was seen as a slight underachievement reflects modern-day sports, where players can bounce from contract to contract, and fans and owners expect instant gratification.
The best example of the build being worth the wait will always be the Chicago Bulls drafting Michael Jordan in the mid-80s yet having to wait until the 1990s to win trophies.
Even the greatest player in NBA history had to wait his turn, which is often the case regardless of how good you are.
There are some exceptions, such as the LA Lakers winning it all in the 2020 season, just one and two years respectively after the arrival of Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
There are just a handful of other examples, all of which involve some of the greatest players the game has seen, which makes it an anomaly.
The vast majority of winners featured in at least 18 playoff matches in the seasons leading up to their win.
If we’re talking about first-time champions, that number jumps to 28 matches.
Remember, this Thunder team have won one playoff game in eight seasons.
They were nowhere to be seen from 2020 until 2023, when they reached the play-in game and lost, and were dumped out in the Conference semi-finals last season despite winning the Western Conference.
SGA leading the charge
On the other hand, the youngest-ever winner of a number-one seed in the NBA has already answered some questions.
Shai-Gilgeous Alexander averaged 32 points per game against the Dallas Mavericks in last year’s playoffs, showing he can step up to the mark.
Despite a below-par performance, there were even bigger clues on offer as OKC beat the Los Angeles Clippers over the weekend, 103-101.
The Clippers are enjoying their best spell of the season and playing basketball which will make them a tough nut to crack in the playoffs.
Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams were poor on offence as the Clippers raced into a 12-point lead, yet the Thunder dug in and did what they do best: play good defence.
Their league-leading defensive rating of 106.2 is 3.3 better than the Clippers, 4.2 better than the Celtics, and 5.2 better than the Cavs.
Speaking after the game, SGA said: “That ‘Whatever it takes' mentality…It's gonna look ugly sometimes, it's gonna look pretty sometimes.
“We want to be a team that gets it done regardless of whether you make or miss shots, and that's what we did tonight.”
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Leeds Utd news: Daniel Farke’s dilemma – Should Junior Firpo stay or go?
Who can stop OKC?
So to summarise, we’ve got an MVP-level player in SGA leading a history-making, record-setting team, equally capable of blowing you out or getting dirty in the trenches and fighting their way to victory.
Then we’re going to throw that team into a best-of-seven series, four of which will be on their home court, and expect who to stop them?
The Rockets or the Nuggets, who have already lost 17 games to teams in the Western Conference?
Perhaps the ageing Lakers who can never guarantee LeBron James will be on the floor?
The Cavaliers and the Celtics look the most credible threat should they make it as far as the finals, though the latter have lost a third of their home games.
That sort of vulnerability will be sniffed out, chewed up and spat out by Mark Diagneault’s team.
The Cavaliers could be good enough to match them with a healthy Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley on the floor, and they have beaten them already this season.
On the other hand, they also trailed them by 40 points on a separate occasion, and they’ll need to be good enough to beat them four times.
The bookmaker’s odds may be hard to back but it’s the right price on a team that should win the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
MORE FROM GEORGE DEMPSEY: NBA betting tips: Oklahoma City Thunder pump the Detroit Pistons as West meets East
