The Oklahoma City Thunder have been atop the Western Conference for months and clinched the No. 1 seed in the West weeks ago. While they have been been impressive racking up wins on the way to a 68-14 regular-season record, what’s more impressive is what Oklahoma City has been doing for bettors who have backed them.
The Thunder, with all of their key players taking the game off, beat the New Orleans Pelicans 115-100 on Sunday and covered as 12.5-point favorites to bring their regular-season record to 55-23-4 (70.5%) against the spread — the best regular-season ATS record since 1990, per ESPN Stats & Information.
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The previous mark was held by the 2011-12 San Antonio Spurs, who went 43-21-2 ATS (67.2%) in a strike-shortened season. The 2009-10 Milwaukee Bucks had held the best regular-season ATS record in an 82-game season with a mark of 54-28 ATS (65.9%).
The Thunder were only underdogs in three games this season (2-1 ATS) and went a remarkable 51-24-4 ATS as a favorite. They were also 23-10-1 ATS as double-digit favorites, winning 32 of those 34 games outright.
Even though Oklahoma City had a historic season covering spreads, they weren’t a hazard for oddsmakers on a nightly basis, in part because of those high numbers.
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“It’s not like everyone was piling on and picking them to cover every night,” Thomas Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata in Atlantic City, told Yahoo Sports. “The Thunder have been pretty good for us this year, so I can’t complain. There were been some times where we had some big decisions on their games and people were fading them, so them covering as much of they did has actually been profitable for us here.”
Jeff Sherman, the vice president of risk at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, echoed Gable’s sentiment that the big spreads kept away public bettors from piling on.
“It was large numbers at home and on the road for Oklahoma City, enough not have people pile on them from that perspective,” Sherman said. “Boston gets more support than the Thunder. Oklahoma City’s spreads are pretty thick for people.”
Oklahoma City is the odds-on favorite at BetMGM to win the Western Conference at -135 odds, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers (+550) and Golden State Warriors (+600). The Thunder are also the NBA title favorites at +175 odds.
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