The Cleveland Cavaliers hold the best record in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean they will win a championship this year.
The history of the league is filled with teams that had strong regular season runs before falling apart in the playoffs.
According to BetMGM, per Yahoo Sports, two teams sit above the Cavaliers as favorites to score a title at the end of 2024-25.
The Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder both have +225 odds, while the Cavaliers are behind them with +600.
Following Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers are +1000, while the Denver Nuggets are +1200.
The Golden State Warriors (+1400), New York Knicks (+1800), and Memphis Grizzlies (+4000) fill out the rest of this list.
Can the Warriors make another title run with Jimmy Butler? 👀🏆 pic.twitter.com/Dq0iyhYelF
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 6, 2025
If the Cavaliers are doing better than all of those teams, why aren’t they the odds-on favorite to win it all?
A lot of that has to do with experience.
The Celtics are the reigning champions, of course, so they clearly know what it takes to win a championship.
Even now, they are one of the most feared second-seed teams of all time and anyone counting them out is surely misguided.
As for the Thunder, it’s not as clear why they have better odds than Cleveland.
Their record isn’t as strong as the Cavaliers’ and they also don’t have a lot of postseason experience.
Perhaps it’s the fact that they have an easier path out of their conference, and the fact that they have been on the rise for several seasons.
At this point, it seems unlikely that the Cavaliers will ever convince the people who doubt them but they will keep playing hard and have already secured a spot in the playoffs.
NEXT: Max Strus Reveals His Thoughts On Kevin Love's Tribute Video
