NBA Finals predictions 2026-27: Best NBA Championship futures bets and odds picks
The 2026 NBA playoffs felt like a fever dream the entire world experienced together.It wasn’t just the wild Knicks run to the championship.The Spurs went from a feel-good story to a potential NBA title contender over the span of a month.The Thunder, who looked nearly unbeatable all playoffs, finally showed some cracks and also became one of the most hated teams in recent memory in the process.The Pistons nearly lost in the first round to an eight seed after winning 60 games, then lost a Game 7 at home by 31 points in the second round.Fans disparage the regular season for being numbingly predictable over the course of six months, but playoffs typically make up for that in the spring.The dichotomy between the two makes picking a champion at the end of the season that much more challenging.
A great regular season can end up meaning nothing, and a lackluster one can give way to the end of 53 years of misery.Looking back at the playoffs can be helpful to see which teams came close to a different fate but fell short of the ultimate goal.The Spurs and Thunder both fit that bill, which is why they are the two favorites at the sportsbook.The Spurs can point to their inexperience — they squandered double-digit leads in every game of the Finals — as the reason why things didn’t go their way.
They have the best defensive player in the NBA and returned the same core with minor upgrades around the edges.The Thunder had injuries hit their key players at the worst possible time.The end of their championship bench became a cap casualty, which means they aren’t quite as deep as they once were.Still, it’s more likely than not that one of those two teams represents the Western Conference in the Finals.In the East, the Knicks breezed through the Cavaliers in the Conference Finals, and Cleveland’s offseason move of adding Peyton Watson isn’t enough to make them an attractive pick to get over the hump.The Knicks themselves have some questions after the front office let ...