2024 NBA Finals Odds - NBA Betting Lines

2024 NBA Finals Betting Online

The Boston Celtics were the best team in the NBA during the 2023-2024 regular season and they begin the playoffs as the favorite to win the NBA Finals. The Celtics did well against other top teams in the East, going 9-3 against them. The trio of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis combined to average 70.3 points, 21.0 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game this season. The New York Knicks are the No. 2 seed in the East and they are led by Jalen Brunson. The Knicks will be without Julius Randle who is injured, so the team in the East that should give Boston its toughest test is the Milwaukee Bucks who are led by Giannis Antetokounmpo. Perhaps the Philadelphia 76ers if they have a healthy Joel Embiid can make some noise and give the Celtics some trouble.

The Western Conference had three teams separated by just a single game during the regular season. The Oklahoma City Thunder finished first followed by the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Thunder are led by NBA MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who averaged over 30 points per game this season. The Nuggets are the defending NBA Champions and they have one of the top players in the league in Nikola Jokic. Minnesota has the star power of Anthony Edwards Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. The West is full of talented teams so any number of other teams could be a threat to Denver. The Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors are capable of making a deep playoff run.

Only five NBA teams have never made it to the NBA Finals now that the Denver Nuggets made their first trip to the NBA Finals last season. The Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Orleans Pelicans have yet to win a conference title. Denver capitalized on its first trip to the NBA Finals with its first NBA championship last season. The Nuggets had been in the league since the ABA-NBA merger, but they had been a long-suffering franchise with only short spurts of success before Nikola Jokic arrived in the Mile High City. Jokic averaged a triple-double throughout the playoffs, and the Nuggets finally broke through with a healthy Jamal Murray and role players like Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown stepping up in big moments.

NBA Betting Lines

2024 NBA Finals

June 6: NBA Finals Game 1

June 23: NBA Finals Game 7 (if necessary)

The NBA Finals pits the winner of the Eastern Conference against the winner of the Western Conference. The teams play a best-of-seven series to determine the league’s champion. The winner of the series is awarded the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. The NBA Finals has a format of 2-2-1-1-1, although from 1985 to 2013 it had a 2-3-2 format.

A total of 21 franchises have won the NBA Finals, with the Lakers and Celtics holding the record for most titles with 17. Boston won a record eight consecutive championships from 1959-1966 beating the Lakers five times during that run. That matchup is the most frequent with the clubs meeting 12 times. The Lakers have appeared in the most NBA Finals with their 32 trips ten more than Boston. The Eastern Conference has 40 wins, while the Western Conference has 37 wins.

Even though the format of the NBA Finals hasn't always been the same, the goal has remained. The two conference champions ultimately play against each other, and the first to win four games is crowned NBA champion. Amazingly, just eight of the series all-time dating back to 1949 have ended in sweeps, while 18 of the series have ended in seven games, most recently, the epic Game 7 between the Cavaliers and the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.

A few teams had spurts of greatness like the New York Knicks in the early 1970s reaching the Finals three times in four years with two titles. Detroit’s “Bad Boys” in the late 1980s reached the Finals three straight seasons winning two titles. And of course, the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan in the 1990s with a pair of three peats. More recently the Golden State Warriors went to five Finals in a row and their 2022 title was their fourth in an eight-year span.

The Celtics and Lakers have combined to win 34 championships while the rest of the teams have combined to win just 43 titles. The biggest sin about the whole thing is how many franchises have never even sniffed the NBA Finals. There are now five teams who have never been to the NBA Finals (Timberwolves, Pelicans, Hornets, Grizzlies and Clippers) and five others who have been and have never won it (Pacers, Magic, Nets, Jazz and Suns). The Sacramento Kings won the NBA championship in 1951 as the Rochester Royals – a lot of good that does fans in Northern California – while the Seattle SuperSonics won their title in 1979 – Oklahoma City fans couldn't care less about that.

NBA Finals Winners (2000)

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