While no one should be thinking about winning a ticket just yet, anyone with the Minnesota Timberwolves to win the NBA Finals at odds of 66 to 1 at BetMGM You should be feeling really good.
The Timberwolves were completely under the radar to win the championship when the initial odds were released, and even at the start of the NBA playoffs the Denver Nuggets were a heavy favorite. That has changed.
The Timberwolves surprised the NBA by not only taking a 2-0 lead over the Nuggets in the second-round series, but also by doing so with ease. Monday’s Game 2 victory came by 26 points without Defensive Player of the Year favorite Rudy Gobert and caused a major shift in NBA future odds.
The Timberwolves are now favorites to win the West and the 66-to-1 odds to win the championship have dropped to 3-to-1, behind only the Boston Celtics.
The Timberwolves Odds Have a Big Change
The Timberwolves’ surge is good news for BetMGM.
The most popular team among bettors to win the NBA Finals is the Nuggets. The Nuggets bet more money on them to win the title at BetMGM than any other team, and they are the biggest liability in the book.
The Nuggets aren’t done yet. They are the defending champions, have the supposed MVP in Nikola Jokic and are capable of winning four of five games. But they have a long way to go to return to the series.
The Timberwolves are -550 to win the series. They are -110 too short to win the West. And the only two teams with better than 8-to-1 odds to win it all are the Celtics at +120 and the Timberwolves at +300.
And it’s not just the 66 to 1 odds when they opened. The Timberwolves were 20-1 to win the championship at the start of the playoffs. They were 10-1 after beating a star-studded Phoenix Suns team in the first round. Even after beating the Nuggets in Game 1, they were 6-1.
Minnesota continues to prove everyone wrong.
Timberwolves are not a fluke
The odds of winning the NBA championship and conference will change a bit. The Timberwolves’ chances are low right now because they have two second-round wins and the Oklahoma City Thunder/Dallas Mavericks series hasn’t started yet. Once there is more clarity on this series, the Timberwolves’ odds could change a bit, even if they blow away the Nuggets.
But the odds won’t change that much. Any team capable of going to Denver and beating the Nuggets twice after beating the Suns deserves respect. Anthony Edwards is making his star turn into a star in the postseason. Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert are two quality big men. It’s no coincidence that Minnesota has been one of the hottest teams this postseason.
Some torches have already been passed this postseason, with some young teams defeating opponents led by longtime stars. The Timberwolves are young and fun. And just look at the odds: they are legitimate candidates to win it all.
