Author
Christopher Boan is a staff writer for BetMichigan.com. He has covered sports and sports betting for more than seven years and has worked for publications such as ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Top 10 Biggest NBA Surprises From 2024-25 Season
Heading into the NBA Playoffs, BetMichigan.com wanted to see which teams were the biggest surprises this season across Michigan sports betting, based on preseason odds according to Basketball-Reference.com. We compared the preseason odds to the final regular season results, ranking the top 10 most surprising teams based on largest positive difference.
Top 10 Biggest NBA Surprises
Rank | Team | Over Difference |
1 | Detroit Pistons | 18.5 |
2 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 15.5 |
T3 | Los Angeles Clippers | 14.5 |
T3 | Portland Trail Blazers | 14.5 |
T5 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 10.5 |
T5 | Chicago Bulls | 10.5 |
7 | Houston Rockets | 8.5 |
T8 | Brooklyn Nets | 6.5 |
T8 | Los Angeles Lakers | 6.5 |
10 | Golden State Warriors | 4.5 |
Where Pistons Rank NBA-Wide
Across the 30-team association, no team flew past their preseason win total over/under to the extent that the upstart Detroit Pistons did, finishing the regular season with a 44-38 (.537) record after entering the year with an over/under of 25.5.
That impressive over coverage meant that Detroit finished the season with the club’s most wins in a year since they went 44-38 under Stan Van Gundy in 2015-16, though this year’s Detroit squad will look for a better ending than that squad. That’s because the 2016 era Pistons were swept in the first round by LeBron James and the Cavaliers, with Detroit losing two of those four contests by double digits before quietly bowing out of the postseason.
This season, first-year head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will look to extend Detroit’s season when the sixth seed goes against the New York Knicks in the first round, which begins in earnest on Saturday, when the two Eastern Conference foes square off inside Madison Square Garden at 6 p.m. Eastern time.
Right now, the team at DraftKings Sportsbook Michigan have the Pistons down as a seven-point road underdog in Game 1 against the Knicks, with +310 odds that Detroit springs the upset over New York in the first round.
Regardless of how Bickerstaff and company fare in the best-of-seven series, Detroit’s fans can take solace in knowing that the Pistons flew in the face of adversity this season, with their +18.5 over difference beating out the Cavaliers (+15.5), Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers (+14.5) for the largest total in the NBA.
USA Today photo by Michael McLoone.
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