As the NBA emerges from the all-star break, there's still a pair of teams pacing the field by a hefty margin in the NBA Finals odds leaderboard.
The latest: Sitting at +200 apiece, the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder are in a class of their own. Only one other team sits inside of 12-to-1 odds. Meanwhile, we're still waiting to see an explosive performance from Luka Doncic with his new team, but it's clear his Los Angeles Lakers are in a much better spot than the snake-bitten Dallas Mavericks.
Check out the latest NBA Finals odds for the 2024-25 season.
NBA Finals odds
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The co-favourites: Celtics, Thunder (+200)
While the Lakers and Mavericks gobble up all the headlines, nothing has changed at the top.
Boston (39-16), the reigning champ, went 8-2 heading into the all-star break and has its sight set on the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed. That distinction currently belongs to Cleveland, but it gives the Celtics something to chase.
The Jayson Tatum-led team is deep and battle-tested. Boston is also the only squad in the East that ranks in the top five in both offensive and defensive rating.
OKC isn't nearly as experienced, with the third-youngest roster in the league (average age of 24.7 years).
After finishing first in the West last season, the Thunder (44-10) are well on their way to the top seed again.
That's thanks in large part to the work of MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Canadian superstar leads the NBA in scoring (32.5 PPG) while shooting 52.3% from the floor.
OKC has plenty of capable shooters, and the team has the best defensive rating in the NBA (104.5). And we're finally seeing Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren healthy at the same time.
Lakers, Mavericks headed in opposite directions
Waking up on Feb. 2 felt like a fever dream as an NBA fan. Shams Charania posted news in the middle of the night that will have an impact on the league for years to come.
After the allegations of a hacked account wore off, the basketball world went crazy with insights and analysis. And that's because this trade seems unfair for the Mavericks, and it is.
At just 25 years old, Doncic has made the NBA All-First Team five times.
He's also coming off a season where he was the first option on a team that went to the NBA Finals and he led the league in scoring (33.9/game). Doncic is without question one of the faces of the sport.
The Lakers are set for the future and they're presumably better right now.
Doncic recently returned from a six-and-a-half-week injury absence. Obviously, he'll need to be at full strength if the Lakers want to be serious title contenders.
The Mavericks' championship odds lengthened from around 20-to-1 to 30-to-1 immediately after the trade was announced.
But those odds are a distant memory now, too, with Anthony Davis expected to miss up to a month with a groin injury.
It's quite a knife twist for Mavs fans, who had an immediate glimpse of how dominant AD can be. In his debut, Davis had 26 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks before getting hurt.
Dallas is now totally devoid of big men, with AD joining Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively and Dwight Powell on the shelf.
The Mavericks are in a logjam in the Western Conference standings. They're only a few games away from avoiding the play-in, but they're also only a few games from being outside the postseason picture altogether.
In other words, this is a time when they need to stack wins, not injuries.
NBA Finals betting notes
- The New York Knicks (+1,200) made major noise in the offseason by bringing in Karl-Anthony Towns. So far, so good, as the big man is averaging 24.7 points and 13.4 rebounds with a staggering 43.8 3PT%. The biggest concern with New York might be wear and tear. Three of the top six NBA players in terms of minutes played are Knicks.
- Even if he doesn't win MVP this year, Nikola Jokic is believed by many to be the best player in the world. And that's always a nice place to start when you're trying to win a title. Denver has the fifth-shortest odds to win the title and the sixth-best net rating in the NBA.
- The Cavaliers continue to put up wins, sitting atop the East with a 44-10 record. With that in mind, their +700 odds to win it all might be the biggest value play available. Cleveland has an enviable backcourt, with Darius Garland stepping up his efficiency to support frontman Donovan Mitchell. In the paint, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are double-double threats on a nightly basis.
