The NBA playoffs tip off Saturday as 16 teams continue their pursuit of the 2024-25 Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Three teams — Western Conference 1-seed Oklahoma City, Eastern Conference 2-seed Boston and East 1-seed Cleveland — enter the postseason as the NBA title favorites as the only teams with 13-1 or better championship odds at the top-rated online sportsbooks.
Below are the best-value NBA championship odds entering the conference play-in tournaments and a closer look at the top five favorites.
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NBA title odds: Oklahoma City Thunder (1. West, 68-14)
Powered by heavy league MVP-favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC finished 16 games ahead of anyone else in the West.
The Thunder 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 semis.
To wit, Oklahoma City set a league single-season point differential record (+12.9 per game) in 2024-25 and finished with the NBA’s top net rating (+12.7) and the best regular season against-the-spread winning percentage (.695, 55-23-4) in 35 years, per ESPN.
If that’s not enough, the Thunder will have home-court edge throughout the postseason after finishing a league-best 35-6 (.854) at Paycom Center.
NBA title odds: Boston Celtics (2. East, 61-21)
The defending NBA champs finished three games behind the Cavaliers in the East but are still favored (-150) to repeat as conference champions.
To do so, starters Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday — who missed a combined 79 games in the regular season — will need to stay healthy.
When complete, Boston’s talent runs deep, and the Celtics are only other team aside from Oklahoma City to finish the regular season with a top-five offensive and defensive rating.
NBA title odds: Cleveland Cavaliers (1. East, 64-18)
The Cavs posted an 18-win improvement over last season and finished with the second-most victories in franchise history.
Led by the league’s most potent offense (121.9 points per game, 121.0 rating), Cleveland’s title odds have improved nearly 10-fold, going from +5000 in the preseason to a consensus +560 after securing the home-court edge throughout the East tournament.
The Cavs haven’t made it to the NBA Finals without LeBron James in the franchise’s previous 54 seasons, but Donovan Mitchell and Co., are out to chart their own championship course this spring.
NBA title odds: Los Angeles Lakers (3. West, 50-32)
Speaking of LeBron, can the 40-year-old James help power the Lakers back to the NBA Finals for only the second time in the last 15 seasons?
Thanks to one of the most shocking trades in league history, James has a young and potent running mate in 26-year-old Luka Doncic, who helped L.A. go 27-14 in the season’s second half to snare the conference’s third seed.
Doncic led the fifth-seeded Mavericks to the NBA Finals a season ago, and is hoping to spring another surprise a year later in Hollywood.
More than a few 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 title odds: Golden State Warriors (7. West, 48-34)
Golden State is deploying a similar strategy as their Cali counterparts, adding midseason trade-acquisition Jimmy Butler to its aging championship combo of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
But even after 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.
If Golden State can beat Memphis on Tuesday night and secure the seventh seed, a winnable first-round series would await against the young and inexperienced Houston Rockets.
Steph, Draymond and Jimmy know the way to the Finals from there.