The oddsmakers seemingly don’t believe in the New York Knicks sustaining their momentum after the San Antonio Spurs ended their 13-game winning streak in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday.
Per ESPN’s Doug Greenberg, the Knicks’ NBA title odds have plummeted from -500 to -190 after they suffered a 115-111 loss in Game 3. It’s rather telling that their odds crashed so significantly even after they won the first two games on the road — a feat that only two other teams have ever achieved in the NBA Finals.
On the flipside, the Spurs’ title odds jumped considerably after their Game 3 win.
“San Antonio is +160 for the title after entering the series at -185 and lengthening to +380 following losses in the first two games,” wrote Greenberg. “New York maintains odds-on status at -190, but that’s a drop from the -500 it showed after going up 2-0. The Knicks were +155 coming into the Finals.”
Can Spurs Make NBA Finals History
Per Polymarket Sports, the Knicks’ championship probability fell from 78 percent to 63 percent after their Game 3 loss.
Even more encouraging for the Spurs, the Knicks are only 2.5-point betting favorites entering Friday’s Game 4 — another sign of the oddsmakers not trusting in Jalen Brunson and Co. to end the franchise’s 54-year NBA championship drought.
If the Spurs can win three of the remaining four games in the NBA Finals, they will become the first team ever to drop the opening two home games and prevail. Previously, the Phoenix Suns (1993) and Houston Rockets (1995) lost the series after going down 2-0 at home against the Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets, respectively.
The Spurs definitely don’t lack in confidence.
Spurs Not Lacking in Confidence
Spurs star Stephon Castle believes the Spurs will win the next three straight games to pull off one of the greatest comebacks in Finals history.
“Yeah, definitely,” he told ESPN’s Malika Andrews on whether he thinks the Spurs can level up the series with a win in Game 4.
“I mean, I expect us to win the next three, but us just taking it game by game, quarter by quarter, and trying to walk this thing down.
“Like I said, those first two games really hurt, and I feel like it was an eye-opener for us. We don’t want it to be that way. We want to punch first and be on the front foot, but that’s the reality of it now.”
In the 21st century, only three teams — the 2006 Miami Heat (vs. Dallas Mavericks), the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers (vs. Golden State Warriors) and the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks (vs. the Phoenix Suns) — were able to recover from a 2-0 hole in the NBA Finals. However, all three of those teams dropped their first two road games.
Knicks vs Spurs Game 4 tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday. If the Spurs can level up the series, they will reclaim home-court advantage entering Saturday’s Game 5.
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