{"id":1921947,"date":"2026-05-07T04:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1921947"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:30:35","slug":"2026-nba-playoffs-second-round-odds-thunder-are-now-minus-odds-title-favorites-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1921947","title":{"rendered":"2026 NBA playoffs second-round odds: Thunder are now minus-odds title favorites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Oklahoma City Thunder have been favored to win the NBA title all season, but as contenders struggle or get eliminated, it\u2019s starting to look less and less likely that someone will take them down.<\/p>\n

The Thunder have had no trouble this postseason and are now favored against the field. OKC has minus odds (-165) to win the NBA title.<\/p>\n

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The San Antonio Spurs looked like legitimate challengers to the Thunder on Wednesday, but the Thunder are still the clear favorites.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday, the Thunder will go for a sixth straight win in this postseason. The other No. 1 seed, the Detroit Pistons, aim for a 2-0 lead against Cleveland.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated throughout the second round as the odds change with the results for every game.<\/p>\n

Eastern Conference<\/h2>\n

No. 1 Detroit Pistons vs. No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers<\/h3>\n

Pistons lead series 1-0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game 2:<\/strong> 7 p.m. ET, Thursday<\/p>\n

Series odds:<\/strong> Pistons -210, Cavaliers +175<\/p>\n

The Pistons labored in the first round and realistically should be eliminated. They trailed by 24 in the second half on the road while facing elimination. Yet, here they are, and they are taking advantage of this second life.<\/p>\n

Detroit raced out to a 16-point lead after a quarter and withstood a late Cleveland charge to take Game 1 111-101. Suddenly, the Pistons look like a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

James Harden was 1-for-7 from the 3-point line, and Donovan Mitchell is complaining about only drawing two free throws, but at least his sneakers<\/a> look very cool.<\/p>\n

Cade Cunningham didn\u2019t have to do everything for Detroit, scoring 23 points on an off shooting night (6-for-19). A more balanced Pistons performance resulted in a win.<\/p>\n

Detroit was favored by barely better than a coin flip at the start of the series. Now, there\u2019s some breathing room in the odds, but it\u2019s still tight.<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

No. 3 New York Knicks vs. No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers<\/h3>\n

Knicks lead series 2-0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game 3:<\/strong> 7 p.m. ET, Friday<\/p>\n

Series odds:<\/strong> Knicks -1000, 76ers +650<\/p>\n

Well, at least Philadelphia kept it close this time. After four straight blowout wins in the playoffs, the Knicks finally were tested. New York still prevailed though and now is in full command of the series with a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Game 2 went down to the final minute and neither team held a lead greater than seven points, but even then the 76ers weren\u2019t within three points in the final three minutes.<\/p>\n

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The big storyline from Wednesday\u2019s game is the absence of Joel Embiid. Injuries once again kept the Philly star out of action. In a game decided by just six points, he could\u2019ve been a difference maker. The 76ers had four players play at least 40 minutes in his absence.<\/p>\n

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The series shifts to Philadelphia for a pair of games, but now the 76ers have to win four out of five and Embiid\u2019s injuries are again a problem.<\/p>\n

Western Conference<\/h2>\n

No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs. No. 4 Los Angeles Lakers<\/h3>\n

Thunder lead series 1-0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game 2:<\/strong> 9:30 p.m. ET, Thursday<\/p>\n

Series odds:<\/strong> Thunder -3000, Lakers +1200<\/p>\n

The Thunder are almost boring at this point. The Lakers raced out to a 7-0 lead in Game 1 on Tuesday, but then Oklahoma City closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run to take a five-point lead and never trailed again. By the end, OKC won by 18.<\/p>\n

While every other team in the playoffs has trailed in a series, Oklahoma City hasn\u2019t lost a game yet.<\/p>\n

LeBron James was LeBron James (27 points on 12-for-17 shooting), but he didn\u2019t get much help. Austin Reaves was 3-for-16 from the field, and Marcus Smart was 4-for-15. The Lakers need Luka Don\u010di\u0107 back, and fast.<\/p>\n

The Thunder comfortably won, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an off night (18 points and seven turnovers). Scary.<\/p>\n

With the Celtics and Nuggets out and the Spurs down a game, the Thunder are minus odds favorites to repeat (-170) after Tuesday\u2019s games.<\/p>\n

No. 2 San Antonio Spurs vs. No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves<\/h3>\n

Series tied 1-1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Game 3:<\/strong> 9:30 p.m. ET, Wednesday<\/p>\n

Series odds:<\/strong> Spurs -300, Timberwolves +245<\/p>\n

If Game 1 was a warning for the Spurs, Game 2 should be causing all kinds of alarm bells for the Timberwolves. The Spurs won by a ridiculous 38 points to even the series.<\/p>\n

San Antonio looked like a 60-win team against a No. 6 seed still not quite at full strength. Anthony Edwards played only 24 minutes in his second game back from injury, although that number would have been higher had Minnesota not already lost the game by early in the second half. Ayo Dosunmu came back from a calf injury that kept him out of the last two games, although he was 0-for-4 from the field in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Victor Wembanyama didn\u2019t have 12 blocks in this game (he had two), but he did have a double-double (19 points, 15 rebounds) and most every Spurs role player had one hot streak in the game.<\/p>\n

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The best encapsulation of how lopsided this game was is that no player on either team even played 30 minutes. Anyone important enough to rest, got rested early in this one.<\/p>\n

The Spurs were favored to win the series even after dropping Game 1 at home. After evening the series with a demolition of Minnesota, the Spurs are strong favorites at -300.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been favored to win the NBA title all season, but as contenders struggle or get eliminated, it\u2019s starting to look less and less likely that someone will take them down. The Thunder have had no trouble this postseason and are now favored against the field. OKC has minus odds (-165) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1921947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1921947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}