Pacers hoping to become most unlikely NBA Finals champion in at least four decades

The Pacers will make betting history with a Game 7 win Sunday night. After coming into the season with little chance at a championship, Indiana is now on the brink of becoming the biggest preseason long shot to win the NBA title since at least 1985, according to Sports Odds History. The Pacers opened the season at +6600 to win it all, which was tied with the Kings for the 17th-best odds in the league at BetMGM Sportsbook before opening night. At one point, Indiana’s championship chances looked even more dire than that in the eyes of oddsmakers, dropping to +15000 at the end of February before the Pacers went on a late-season run. With a win, the Pacers would surpass the 2014-15 Warriors, who were +2800 to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy before the season. The 2011 Mavericks (+2000), 2019 Raptors (+1850), 2023 Nuggets (+1800) and 2004 Pistons (+1500) round out the current top-five of biggest preseason long shots to win the championship. It would also be one of the biggest Finals upsets in recent history, tying the 2004 Pistons, who took down the Shaq and Kobe Lakers as +500 pre-series long shots.The Pacers will need to pull off one more major upset if they want to make it happen, though. The Thunder opened as 8.5-point favorites on their home floor in Game 7, which would be the largest spread in an NBA Finals Game 7 since at least 1991, according to ESPN’s David Payne Purdum. They would become just the fourth team to win a Game 7 on the road and just the second in the last 40 years, joining the 2016 Cavaliers, 1978 Bullets, 1969 Celtics and 1955 Nationals....