{"id":351011,"date":"2025-06-04T14:09:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=351011"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:09:21","slug":"pacers-vs-thunder-game-1-nba-finals-sgp-predictions-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/pacers-vs-thunder-game-1-nba-finals-sgp-predictions-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers vs. Thunder NBA Finals Game 1 SGP predictions: Target Holmgren, fade Haliburton at +400"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Indiana Pacers hit the road as sizeable underdogs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> The Oklahoma City Thunder earned the right to be huge favourites to win the title. They finished with an all-time regular season record (68-14) and have been the best team in the playoffs. The Pacers have been resilient in this position, though, with one more major upset to pull off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my Pacers vs. Thunder SGP predictions for Game 1 on June 5, featuring Chet Holmgren and Tyrese Haliburton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pacers vs. Thunder predictions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/sports\/basketball\/competitions\/10240\"><strong>Full NBA betting markets<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/nba-injury-report-news\"><strong>NBA injury report<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/top-players\"><strong>NBA player stats<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.com\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nba\/standings\"><strong>NBA standings<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Parlay: Thunder -7.5 | Holmgren over 16.5 points | Haliburton under 17.5 points (+400)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thunder -7.5 (-159):<\/strong> Let&#8217;s start by looking at some stats and where OKC ranks in the postseason:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Second-best net rating (11.8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Best defensive rating (104.7)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lowest turnover percentage (11.6)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>That makes it incredibly hard to beat the Thunder over 48 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This team has two All-NBA defensive team members and a newly minted MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who led the NBA in scoring while being extremely efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indiana&#8217;s been very good on the road in the playoffs (6-2), but the team&#8217;s been down big a few times before coming back to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That may fly in the Eastern Conference, but there&#8217;s no room for error against the Thunder, who are used to playing with and maintaining big leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NBA SGP legs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><strong><strong>Holmgren over 16.5 points <\/strong><\/strong>(-130):<\/strong> The Pacers have a hard time containing skilled bigs, as we saw with Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holmgren isn&#8217;t KAT, but this isn&#8217;t a KAT line, and there are a few reasons to like OKC&#8217;s rising big man in this matchup:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 23-year-old has upped his production in the playoffs, averaging 16.4 points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He had his best series in the WCF vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves, scoring 18.0 PPG on 56.7% from the field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Indiana allowed the seventh-most points per game to power forwards during the regular season (23.88), per Fantasy Pros.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He went 3-2 on this wager against the Timberwolves, and I expect even more success in the Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This game could end up in blowout territory, so I wanted to find a pick I thought could cash in limited minutes, and this fits the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Haliburton under 17.5 points (-110):<\/strong> Haliburton&#8217;s averaging 18.8 points in the postseason, but OKC&#8217;s defence is a different beast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Thunder&#8217;s defensive rating (104.7) is almost four points higher than the next closest team and is almost nine points higher than the Knicks&#8217; (113.2).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Plus, Haliburton is 4-4 against this line on the road and has 22 total points in his last two away games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The guard has been relying on heavy 3-point volume (7.1 attempts per game). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He won&#8217;t have as much space against OKC&#8217;s smothering defence and plethora of defensive wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Pacers vs. Thunder predictions made at 2:03 p.m. ET 06\/04\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Indiana Pacers hit the road as sizeable underdogs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The pregame narrative: The Oklahoma City Thunder earned the right to be huge favourites to win the title. They finished with an all-time regular season record (68-14) and have been the best team in the playoffs. The Pacers have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":350984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452,62],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-351011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-com","category-nba","tag-nba-betting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pacers vs. Thunder predictions Game 1: NBA Finals | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check our NBA Game 1 Pacers vs. Thunder SGP predictions. 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