The Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves headline Friday’s five-game NBA slate.
The pregame narrative: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having another MVP-calibre season, and I expect him to continue his dominance against the T-Wolves. Chet Holmgren leads the supporting cast and should be able to have another strong outing to add to his incredible month.
Check out my +480 Thunder vs. Timberwolves SGP, featuring SGA and Holmgren.
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Thunder vs. Timberwolves SGP
Parlay: Thunder -5.5 | Holmgren over 16.5 points | Gilgeous-Alexander 2+ threes (+480)
Thunder -5.5 (-167): The first thing to note here is that Anthony Edwards is in danger of missing this game with a foot injury. He is a game-time decision, but he has missed three straight games so far.
If he’s unavailable, the T-Wolves would be shorthanded for this matchup.
And that won’t fly against the Thunder. OKC is 24-2 on the season with an incredible 12-1 record on the road.
Even with Edwards in the lineup, this is an extremely tough matchup for any team.
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The Thunder lead the NBA with a +16.9 average score margin. That means they win by an average of almost 17 points a night.
For context, the next closest team is Denver at +9.4.
This is a historically good team that has covered this spread in 15 of its past 16 wins. If I’m backing the Thunder to win, then it makes sense to take them on an alternate spread for a juicier price.
NBA SGP legs
Holmgren over 16.5 points (-114): Holmgren has been turning it up a notch as a scorer. Take a look at his last eight games:
- 20.8 points per game
- 63.0 FG%
- 53.8 3PT%
- 7-1 against this line
In the one game he missed this mark, he finished with 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
It’s been a while since the big man has had a bad game, and I believe he can keep the trend going with another big performance tonight.
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The Timberwolves have a top-10 defence, but it shouldn’t matter at the moment.
Holmgren is matchup-proof right now and recently cleared this mark against a top-five defence (Golden State Warriors).
Gilgeous-Alexander 2+ threes (-104): The reigning MVP has become an even more efficient scorer, which seemed impossible.
But it’s true. He’s shooting an incredible 55.9% from the field and 43.2% from 3.
He only takes 5.1 three-point attempts per game, but the low volume doesn’t deter him from averaging over 2.0 makes per night.
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SGA often only needs a handful of shots to clear this mark. The good news is, he has been taking more 3s lately.
He’s cleared this line in four of the past five games while attempting six or more 3s in three of those contests.
Overall, he’s 18-9 against this wager this season, so he only needs a standard performance to cash this pick.
Thunder vs. Timberwolves SGP made at 9:37 a.m. ET on Dec. 19, 2025.
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Spencer is a true sports junkie. A graduate of the Sports Journalism program at Centennial College, he first joined NorthStar Gaming as an intern in 2023. He is now a contributing writer. He loves finding the edge to bet on in all sports but has a deep passion for the NBA and UFC. Previous stops include Sportsnet.