NBA Finals 2025 betting guide: Basketball betting basics for Thunder vs. Pacers Game 1 picks, predictions

The culmination of the 2025 NBA playoffs has arrived as the Indiana Pacers will face off versus the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals. Game 1 will tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday after both teams had similar paths to reach this stage. Each squad has gone 12-4 in the postseason, with Indiana needing six games to win the Eastern Conference Finals, while Oklahoma City advanced from the West Finals in five. The latest Thunder vs. Pacers odds for Game 1 have OKC favored by 9.5 points, while the over/under for total points is 231.

Both cities are vying for their first championships in league history, making the 2025 NBA Finals the first with that distinction since Miami and Dallas faced off in 2006. Indiana won three ABA championships prior to the ABA-NBA merger, but the Pacers lost in their only previous NBA Finals appearance in 2000. Meanwhile, the OKC franchise won an NBA title when it was still known as the Seattle SuperSonics (1979), but the team lost its only prior Finals appearance (2012) since moving to Oklahoma City. This will be the first-ever postseason meeting between the two franchises.

These teams have the two best records in the NBA since January 1, with the Thunder having a .803 win percentage, while the Pacers have a .719 win rate. OKC is hoping to cap off a historic season as if it wins the title, then the 84 regular plus postseason victories would be the most by an NBA champion since the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls. The Thunder are led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who topped the league with 32.7 points per game and can pass Michael Jordan (32.6 ppg in 1992-93) for the most ppg on a title-winning team in NBA history.

The Pacers have their own history at stake in the 2025 NBA Finals, as their postseason has been defined by epic comebacks. Indiana's had four comebacks of 17-plus points in the 2025 NBA playoffs, which is already the most since the play-by-play era began in 1997. Indiana knocked off the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, and by toppling the 68-win Thunder, the Pacers can become the first team in NBA history to defeat multiple 64-plus win teams in a single postseason.

While backers of the Pacers and Thunder obviously have much invested in the 2025 NBA Finals, the average basketball fan may not have as much interest, considering the smaller market sizes for both franchises. But thanks to the surge of sports betting in recent years, they too can get more involved in the series.

If you're not a professional or frequent bettor, fear not. Novices and casuals often get intimidated when it comes to wagering on sports, but the following betting guide will help you learn some of the basics of basketball betting and have even more fun while consuming the 2025 NBA Finals. You can also view this comprehensive NBA betting guide as another resource for the top sportsbooks and betting apps for your NBA wagering. See more in the NBA betting guide here.

Basketball betting basics

One of the first things new bettors always should do when looking to wager on the NBA -- or any other sport -- is peruse the top sportsbooks. They'll often have different sign-up offers that can include things like deposit matches, "bet and get" and "no sweat bets."

The other benefit to using multiple sportsbooks is the ability to shop around when it comes to lines and odds. For instance, one sportsbook might have the total for the next Thunder vs. Pacers game at 230, and another may have it at 232. It's always a good idea to shop around for the most favorable number when placing NBA bets.

For new users, taking advantage of sports betting promos provides the opportunity to add bonus bets to your account to get started in basketball betting.

Once you've selected a sportsbook, you need to explore different wagers. Most NBA pages automatically will feature the next upcoming game of the NBA Finals with +/- pricings for wagers. Plus-money prices show how much you would profit on a $100 bet. For example, the underdog being priced at +250 means you would profit $250 on a $100 wager. Meanwhile, minus-money prices show how much you need to wager to profit $100. For example, the favorite being listed at -300 means you need to bet $300 to profit $100.

Those prices are attached to three main types of bets:

• Spread: This is the amount the favorite must win by in order to cover. Thus, if the favorite is listed at Favorite (-5.5), then it must win by 6 or more points in order to cover. That also means the underdog, who would be listed at Underdog (+5.5) can cover by either outright winning or by losing by 5 points or fewer.
• Total (over/under): This refers to the total number of points scored in the game. For example, if the Over/Under, or O/U, is 227.5, then the Under would win if there are 227 or fewer points, while the Over would prevail with 228 or more points.
• Money line: This is simply a straight-up bet on which team will win, without regard to any point spreads or margin of victories.

Thunder vs. Pacers prop betting

Other bets that tend to make NBA wagering exciting are prop bets. Users can find NBA prop bets on teams, individual players and the game itself.

First up, player props, in which there are countless options related to statistics. One of the more popular is the points prop where a player is given a scoring bar, say 26.5, and they simply must either go Over or Under that bar. You can also do combo player props, such as totaling a player's points plus rebounds plus assists and predicting if that combination hits above or below their props bar.

There also are prop bets on individual teams. Those can include what type of basket a team will score first (2-pointer, 3-pointer, free throw), how many total points a team will score, or who will lead that team in rebounds.

Meanwhile, some of the most interesting NBA prop bets are game props. Users can wager on whether or not the game goes to overtime, how many dunks are in the first 5 minutes, or which team reaches 20 points first.

Thunder vs. Pacers parlay picks

As is the case with many other sports, parlays are a popular type of bet on NBA games. Parlays are when a user strings together multiple wagers and must win all of them in order to win the bet. Here's an example from any given night during the NBA regular season:

The above example carries odds of +1074. The user must win all three of those bets to win the parlay, which makes parlays much more difficult to win than individual wagers.

With the NBA Finals now here, same-game parlays (SGP) will now be the only type of parlays. The same rules apply as above, but all of the wagers will now take place from the same game.

Note that each sportsbook has its own formula for SGP odds, another reason to look around at various sports betting apps.

NBA futures betting

Another popular type of wager is a futures bet, and sportsbooks offer a wide array of them for NBA teams and players. Futures bets often are season- or postseason-long wagers that cash if a player or team hits a certain benchmark or wins a certain award. Since the 2025-26 NBA season has just a handful of games left, current NBA futures involve next season's results. In fact, bettors can already wager on who will win the 2026 NBA championship while in the midst of the 2025 NBA Finals.

Team futures include NBA championship winner, conference winner, over/under for wins, and the team to make the playoffs. On the individual player side, there are options such as winning MVP, or any other award, or averaging a certain amount of points.

An NBA futures still available for this season is betting on who wins the Finals MVP award. The season MVP is also the favorite for the Finals MVP in Gilgeous-Alexander. Jerry West won the inaugural Finals MVP award in 1969 while playing for the runner-up Los Angeles Lakers, but since then, every NBA Finals MVP has come from the winning team.

How to bet on the NBA Finals

Sportsbooks have already posted NBA Finals odds for 2025-26, as the odds for 2025 NBA Finals winner were posted during last season's championship series. Those odds will change throughout the campaign, so users can shop for different odds at different times.

When it comes to how to bet on the NBA Finals or the playoffs in general, it isn't much different from betting on regular-season games. Perhaps the biggest differences include the ability to bet on each individual series, which can be done outright (Pacers to defeat the Knicks), or you can wager on the exact outcome (Pacers to defeat the Knicks in six games).

Thunder vs. Pacers live betting

As is the case with so many other sports, users can live bet on NBA games, which just means betting on a game while it's in progress. The odds will change depending on the score of the game, the time remaining, foul situation and other factors.

It sometimes can be good to live bet if users want to get a feel for how the game is playing out before placing a wager. For instance, if a team has a couple of key injuries, users may want to see how it reacts to those before placing a bet.

Tips and advice for betting on the NBA Finals

The NBA can be very unpredictable, as evident by the conference finals consisting of just one team with a top-2 playoff seed. So, simply betting the favored team with the spread is generally is not a good strategy. Here are a few more betting tips from SportsLine's No. 1 NBA expert Mike Barner, who is 229-166-2 (+3614) over his last 397 NBA picks.

Trends for Game 1 NBA bets: "It's tough to read too much into regular season matchups because, often times, teams weren't at full strength every time they played each other. I'd rather look at recent playoff trends and playoff rotations for both teams. If you want regular season insight, look at total team stats like pace of play, defensive rating, etc."

Tips for newcomers to NBA betting: "Remember that bench/role players tend to perform better at home than on the road. The home crowd is a big help to these players."

Favorite types of bets for big events like the Finals: "I like props for star players. We know they are going to play a ton and have the ball in their hands a ton during these important games. I don't want to take chances on betting a prop for the eighth man on the bench to go over or under a low point total. Focus on the starters that have the biggest impact."

NBA picks for Thunder vs. Pacers in Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals

You've learned the basics of NBA betting for the Pacers vs. Thunder matchup. Now see picks from Barner for Game 1, including an NBA player prop pick for Gilgeous-Alexander. Visit SportsLine to see Barner's best bets.

Also, SportsLine expert Matt Severance has locked in his Game 1 predictions, with both an against-the-spread pick and an Over/Under prediction. Visit SportsLine to see his best plays, all from an NBA expert who is up nearly 20 units.