2026 NBA Finals, odds: New York Knicks open as underdogs against San Antonio Spurs
Start spreading the news: The New York Knicks are underdogs in their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.
Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs beat the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder 111-103 in Game 7 on Saturday night to advance to face the Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals. One bettor ended up cashing a parlay worth $1.71 million as a result of the San Antonio victory.
The Thunder had been the favorite at sportsbooks to win the 2025-26 NBA title throughout the season.
The Spurs opened as -210 favorites in the series, with the Knicks at +170.
The Knicks had been favorites in every series this postseason — -300 vs. the Atlanta Hawks, -275 vs. the Philadelphia 76ers and -300 vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers — but will be an underdog for the first time in this playoffs in the franchise’s long-awaited return to the finals.
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This will be the sixth time the Knicks have been in the NBA Finals since 1970 — and the Knicks have been underdogs in every one, except that 1970 matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers in which New York entered as a -160 favorite, per Sports Odds History. The Knicks won that series seven games.
Here are the odds for the Knicks’ five other finals appearances since 1970:
1970: Knicks (-160) beat Lakers (+140) in seven games
1972: Knicks (+200) lose to Lakers (-250) in five games
1973: Knicks (+140) beat Lakers (-160) in five games
1994: Knicks (+180) lose to Houston Rockets (-220) in seven games
1999: Knicks (+600) lose to Spurs (-900) in five games
New York comes into the series winners of 11 straight postseason games — 10-1 against the spread in those contests — winning them by an average of 23.8 points per game en route to consecutive sweeps of the 76ers and Cavaliers.
“I’m shading towards the Knicks because of how much liability we have here,” Thomas Gable, sportsbook director at The Borgata in Atlantic City told Yahoo Sports on Thursday. “I think there’s going to be a lot of public money on the Knicks once this series price opens and the price is going to dip.
Gable noted that he “doesn’t want any more Knicks money” and that his book had taken several five-figure wagers on New York to win the title this week.
The Spurs are 4.5-point home favorites in Game 1 on Wednesday night, June 3.
