The chase for the 2024-25 NBA title ramps up this weekend with the start of the playoffs
Sixteen teams populate the opening bracket, but only three — the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers — enter the postseason with better than 13-1 championship odds.
Following are the best-value NBA title odds prior to the start of the conference play-in tournaments Tuesday, along with a closer look at the top five favorites.
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NBA championship odds: Oklahoma City Thunder (1. West)
At 68-14, the Thunder finished 16 games ahead of anyone else in the Western Conference and will have the homecourt advantage throughout the postseason.
Led by league MVP-favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC is deeper and more experienced than its West top-seeded squad of a year ago which was upended by the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals.
Oklahoma City set a league single-season point differential record (+12.9 per game) in 2024-25 and finished with the league’s top net rating (+12.7) and the NBA”s best regular season against-the-spread winning percentage (.695, 55-23-4) in 35 years, per ESPN.
Add it all up, and you get why the Thunder are the odds-on favorite to win the franchise’s first NBA title since 1978-79, when they were the Seattle SuperSonics.
NBA championship odds: Boston Celtics (2. East)
At 61-21, the reigning NBA champs finished three games behind the Cavaliers in the East but are still favored (-150) to return to the NBA Finals.
The Celtics are only other team apart from OKC to finish the regular season with a top-five offensive and defensive rating.
But health will be a key in the tournament as Boston starters Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday combined to miss 79 games during the regular season.
NBA championship odds: Cleveland Cavaliers (1. East)
The Cavs are the surprise contender of 2024-25, winning 18 more games than they did a season ago to finish atop the East.
Cleveland boasts the league’s most potent offense (121.9 points per game, 121.0 rating), and its NBA title odds have improved nearly 10-fold, going from +5000 in the preseason to a consensus +560 currently.
The Cavs have made four previous NBA Finals appearances — all with LeBron James leading the charge — but Donovan Mitchell and Co., are out to chart their own course this spring.
NBA championship odds: Los Angeles Lakers (3. West)
As for LeBron’s current team, the 40-year-old legend has a new young and potent running mate, courtesy of one of the most shocking trades in league history.
Luka Doncic, 26, helped L.A. go 27-14 in the season’s second half to finish 50-32 and snare the conference’s third seed.
A season ago, Doncic led the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals, and he’s hoping to follow the same script this spring.
A significant number of bettors are banking on that possibility with the Lakers accounting for the highest percentage of total NBA title tickets (15.9) and handle (15.4) at BetMGM Sportsbook as of Monday.
NBA championship odds: Golden State Warriors (7. West)
Golden State didn’t get Doncic at the trade deadline, but did acquire Jimmy Butler to add to its veteran championship combo of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
Still, despite a 23-8 finish to the regular season, the Warriors had to settle for seventh place in the West and will to navigate the play-in tournament route to the franchise’s third playoff berth in the last six seasons.
However, if Golden State defeats Memphis on Tuesday night to secure the seventh seed, a winnable first-round series would await against the young and inexperienced Houston Rockets.
In short, a Cinderella run can’t be dismissed for a team with three proven postseason performers.
