Whereas the Oklahoma City Thunder are nonetheless alive within the NBA Finals, the identical cannot be mentioned of the extraordinarily massive guess that Jay-Z positioned on the Thunder previous to their collection in opposition to the Indiana Pacers.
Earlier than the Finals started, Jay-Z placed a $1 million wager on the Thunder to win the title in precisely 5 video games at +230 odds utilizing Fanatics Sportsbook. Had OKC certainly gained the collection in 5, it could have yielded a whopping $3.3 million for the well-known rapper. As an alternative, Jay-Z has now formally misplaced the guess after the Pacers recorded a 116-107 win in Game 3 to take a 2-1 collection lead.
With a web value of $2.5 billion, Jay-Z in all probability is not dropping sleep over dropping the guess. That being mentioned, it is secure to say that he is not thrilled with Wednesday evening’s end result and the media protection that comes with dropping that a lot on a guess.
The Thunder entered the collection as important favorites — one thing that did not change even after blowing an enormous lead in a Sport 1 loss. OKC then rebounded with a convincing Sport 2 victory, so Jay-Z’s guess was trying fairly good coming into Wednesday evening’s contest in Indianapolis. And thru three quarters, the visiting Thunder had an 89-84 lead. However they misplaced the sport after being outscored 32-18 within the fourth quarter.
Indiana’s win can largely be attributed to its bench (who out-scored the Thunder’s bench 49-18) and its 17 pressured turnovers. Particularly, the Pacers did job getting the ball away from league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who dedicated a game-high six turnovers.
Now down 2-1, the Thunder, who gained 68 regular-season video games to earn the West’s No. 1 seed, are nonetheless the favorites to win the title. At DraftKings, for instance, the Thunder are -230 favorites. The Pacers are listed at +190.
Whereas they’d clearly desire to not be on this state of affairs, the Thunder have been right here earlier than. Within the second spherical, they trailed the Nuggets 2-1 after dropping Sport 3 on the highway. They then rallied to win three of the collection’ remaining 4 video games.
Oklahoma Metropolis will now look to make an analogous comeback within the Finals, beginning with Sport 4 on Friday evening.