{"id":1952792,"date":"2026-05-24T14:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1952792"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T11:30:20","slug":"thunder-vs-spurs-series-odds-oklahoma-city-slight-underdog-again-despite-big-game-3-win-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1952792","title":{"rendered":"Thunder vs. Spurs series odds: Oklahoma City slight underdog again despite big Game 3 win"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>The Oklahoma City Thunder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7301939\/2026\/05\/22\/thunder-spurs-game-3-result-western-conference-finals-nba\/\">took the lead in the Western Conference finals<\/a> against the San Antonio Spurs by showing just why they have been so formidable all season: Two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led a team effort of such depth and versatility that just one of Oklahoma City\u2019s role players managed to outscore the entire Spurs bench. In San Antonio\u2019s first home game of the series, at that.<\/p>\n<p>After a slow start, the Thunder took Game 3 comfortably, 123-108, to go up 2-1.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>And yet. The Spurs are still <em>that<\/em> team \u2014 the one that has had the Thunder\u2019s number again and again. And San Antonio is still favored in Game 4, though only slightly.<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs are 1.5-point favorites for Sunday\u2019s matchup, with a moneyline on FanDuel of -126 or a 55.75 percent implied chance of winning.<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City is still favored to advance past San Antonio, though, and at much stronger odds than before Game 3, moving from -160 on BetMGM to a whopping -450, or an over 80 percent likelihood of winning. Historically, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7302348\/2026\/05\/23\/shai-gilgeous-alexander-thunder-spurs-game-3-western-conference-finals\/\">winner of Game 3<\/a> in a series tied 1-1 takes the series more than 70 percent of the time.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"79WYq29izqZhpyW\"><\/div>\n<h2>Game 4: Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs<\/h2>\n<p><span data-tallysight-widget-type=\"tile\" data-tallysight-widget-id=\"6a080403ad6c330d890cd4f4\" data-tallysight-widget-config-workspace=\"the-athletic\"><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<strong>TV:<\/strong> NBC\/Peacock<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time:<\/strong> Sunday, 8 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p><strong>Series odds:<\/strong> Thunder -450, Spurs +350<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thunder lead 2-1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The big question for the Spurs before their last game was whether they could get their guards healthy to open up the floor for star center Victor Wembanyama\u2019s offense. Well, that didn\u2019t play out exactly as hoped. De\u2019Aaron Fox was back on the floor, though likely not at 100 percent, and his efforts weren\u2019t enough to deliver a win.<\/p>\n<p>OKC saw four of their bench players score in the double digits, while not a single Spurs reserve got more than six. Jared McCain scored 24 points on 10-of-21 shooting, Jaylin Williams scored 18 and added five rebounds and Alex Caruso, who <em>The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> John Hollinger says could easily win series MVP, added 15 points, three boards, two steals and a block. Cason Wallace contributed 11 points and three steals.<\/p>\n<div id=\"inline-graphic\">\n<p>        a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n  display: flex;<br \/>\n  gap: 20px;<br \/>\n  flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n  align-items: center;<br \/>\n  padding: 20px 0px;<br \/>\n  border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);<br \/>\n  text-decoration: none;<br \/>\n  color: #121212;<br \/>\n  cursor: pointer;<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-franklin;<br \/>\n    font-size: 14px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 700;<br \/>\n    line-height: 13.8px;<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 1.1px;<br \/>\n    text-transform: uppercase;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-image {<br \/>\n    border-radius: 8px;<br \/>\n    object-fit: cover;<br \/>\n    width: 200px;<br \/>\n    height: 150px;<br \/>\n    margin: 0px;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      width: 120px;<br \/>\n      height: 120px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-inner-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: row;<br \/>\n    gap: 16px;<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-text-content {<br \/>\n    display: flex;<br \/>\n    flex-direction: column;<br \/>\n    gap: 20px;<br \/>\n    justify-content: center;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      gap: 8px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-title {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-cheltenham;<br \/>\n    font-size: 24px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 500;<br \/>\n    line-height: 120%; \/* 24px *\/<br \/>\n    letter-spacing: 0.01px;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 3;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n    font-family: nyt-imperial;<br \/>\n    font-size: 16px;<br \/>\n    font-style: normal;<br \/>\n    font-weight: 400;<br \/>\n    line-height: 139%; \/* 19.46px *\/<br \/>\n    color: #323232;<br \/>\n    text-overflow: ellipsis;<br \/>\n    overflow: hidden;<br \/>\n    display: -webkit-box;<br \/>\n    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;<br \/>\n    -webkit-line-clamp: 4;<br \/>\n    @media (max-width: 600px) {<br \/>\n      font-size: 12px;<br \/>\n      line-height: 121%;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>.showcase-link-inputs {<br \/>\n  .showcase-link-input {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n    font-size: 1rem;<br \/>\n    background-color: white;<br \/>\n    margin-bottom: 12px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  .showcase-link-indent {<br \/>\n    margin-left: 25px;<br \/>\n  }<\/p>\n<p>  option {<br \/>\n    width: 100%;<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {<br \/>\n  .native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {<br \/>\n    background-color: #121212;<br \/>\n    color: #f0f0ee;<br \/>\n    .showcase-link-excerpt {<br \/>\n      color: #c4c4c0;<br \/>\n    }<br \/>\n  }<br \/>\n}<\/p>\n<p>            \/\/ Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click<br \/>\n            document.querySelectorAll(&#8216;.showcase-link-image&#8217;).forEach((img) =&gt; img.removeAttribute(&#8216;onclick&#8217;));<\/p>\n<p>        <a id=\"showcase-link-7302348\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7302348\/2026\/05\/23\/shai-gilgeous-alexander-thunder-spurs-game-3-western-conference-finals\/\" class=\"showcase-link-container in-content-module-link testbed-shortcode\" data-shortcode-id=\"101\" data-shortcode-string=\"showcase-link\" data-content-id=\"7302348\" data-content-post-type=\"article\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link\">What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-inner-content\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/05\/23080848\/GettyImages-2277192952-1024x683.jpg?width=400&amp;quality=70\" alt=\"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beat Spurs and his critics with a savvy Game 3 show\" class=\"showcase-link-image\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-text-content\">\n<div class=\"showcase-link-title\">\n                  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beat Spurs and his critics with a savvy Game 3 show\n              <\/div>\n<div class=\"showcase-link-excerpt\">\n                  Friday wasn&#8217;t Gilgeous-Alexander&#8217;s best game on the stat sheet, but it showed how he can beat \u2014 and frustrate \u2014 a team with his genius.\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Stephon Castle improved his turnover problem, giving the ball away just once in Game 3, but the Thunder still forced 15 turnovers against the Spurs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7301939\/2026\/05\/22\/thunder-spurs-game-3-result-western-conference-finals-nba\/\">From<em> The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> Jared Weiss<\/a>: \u201cFor San Antonio to respond, the Spurs need to attack the paint with more confidence and force, and Mitch Johnson has to find cleaner, more precise ways to get Wembanyama touches in the post.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oklahoma City Thunder took the lead in the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs by showing just why they have been so formidable all season: Two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led a team effort of such depth and versatility that just one of Oklahoma City\u2019s role players managed to outscore the entire Spurs [&hellip;]<\/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-1952792","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\/1952792","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=1952792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1952792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1952792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1952792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}