No matter what happens, two more Canadians will add their names to the list of NBA champions later this month. But who will you cheer for in the 2025 NBA Finals? This is going to be a tough call: Will it be the Oklahoma City Thunder, with arguably the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time? Or will it be the Indiana Pacers, who also feature one of the essential members of the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors?
Either way, Bodog Sportsbook is your home for the best NBA betting lines you’ll find anywhere in the Americas. The action has already picked up since this year’s finals matchup was set in stone Saturday night. Let’s take a closer look at both teams and see where the betting value lies, starting with the Western Conference champions.
Road to the Finals: Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City is coming off one of the truly great regular seasons of all time, posting a 68-14 record (55-23-4 ATS) with a +12.9 point differential. That’s the most any NBA team has ever beaten the opposition by. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers held the previous mark at +12.3. Those Lakers went on to win the title, as did all of the previous top five teams in that category.
The Thunder actually began this epic journey in 2019, when they pulled the plug on the Russell Westbrook-Paul George combo. GM Sam Presti wove his usual magic by trading both All-Stars for a combined 11 first-round draft picks; OKC also received Chris Paul from the Houston Rockets in exchange for Westbrook, eventually flipping Paul for yet another first-rounder.
Those picks will continue to replenish the Thunder roster for years to come, but there’s no need for Thunder fans to wait out an extended rebuilding project. For example, Jalen Williams (“J-Dub”) was taken with the No. 12 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft; Williams became an All-Star this year in his third season, putting up 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game as the third player in OKC’s Big Three.
The Thunder used their own first-rounder in 2022 to select the No. 2 player in that trio – and it was the No. 2 overall pick, after back-to-back seasons as one of the worst teams in the league. Chet Holmgren’s debut was delayed by a year because of injury, but he’s already one of the better players in the NBA, racking up 15.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game while hitting 37.9% of his trey attempts as a stretch big.
OKC: Player of the Season
Did we mention the other assets Presti received from the Los Angeles Clippers in that George deal? Danilo Gallinari only played one year for the Thunder, but Toronto native Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has panned out quite well. Not only was he Oklahoma City’s best player this year, Gilgeous-Alexander was also named league MVP, becoming just the second Canadian (after Steve Nash) to win the award.
Basketball purists can rightly argue that Nikola Jokic had the better 2024-25 campaign from a statistical perspective, but unlike Jokic’s controversial MVP loss to Joel Embiid two years ago, we’re basically comparing apples and oranges when it comes to Gilgeous-Alexander. Let’s focus instead on what SGA has done for the Thunder, leading the league in scoring at 32.7 points per game while dishing out 6.4 assists and scooping up 5.0 rebounds.
More importantly, Gilgeous-Alexander got the Thunder past Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in their hard-fought second-round playoff battle, which went the distance. Then SGA was named Western Conference Finals MVP after leading Oklahoma City to a convincing 4-1 series win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Gilgeous-Alexander does have an incredible supporting cast by his side, one that Jokic was lacking this year in Denver. It’s more than just Holmgren and Williams. For example, there’s SGA’s Team Canada running mate Luguentz “Lu” Dort, the Montreal native who was just named to his first All-Defensive team. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has also enjoyed success playing Holmgren at the 4-spot alongside Isaiah Hartenstein at the 5.
Let’s not forget Alex Caruso, the 2-time All-Defensive player who happens to be the only man on the Thunder to have previously reached the NBA Finals, winning it all with the Lakers in 2019-20. There’s plenty more talent where that came from, but ultimately, this team will go as far as Gilgeous-Alexander can carry it. Will he add yet another MVP trophy to his case this June?
Bodog’s Best Bet: OKC Special
Given how the Thunder have rolled through this season, it seems inevitable they’ll write their name in the NBA record books alongside the greatest champions in league history, like those aforementioned 1971-72 Lakers, the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks, and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
Their coronation may not actually be inevitable, but as we go to press, Oklahoma City is the –675 favourite at Bodog to take home their first championship since moving from Seattle. That’s down slightly from –700 after the Thunder eliminated Minnesota in five games.
If you’re going to join the chalk eaters for this series, you might want to stick with Gilgeous-Alexander winning the Finals MVP at –600. Or you could go for one of their other Big Three players. Williams is available at +2500, but Holmgren could be the right choice at +7500; he’s a superior talent to Williams, and he’ll have a somewhat more favourable matchup with Indiana’s bigs than SGA will have facing the best player on the Pacers.
Road to the Finals: Indiana Pacers
Things didn’t look particularly bright for Indiana early in their 2024-25 campaign. Injuries were the main culprit behind their 6-10 start, but once the Pacers got healthy, they looked very much like the kind of team that could sneak up on the top contenders in the Eastern Conference.
And so it came to pass. After finishing the regular season at 50-32 (36-45-1 ATS) to claim the No. 4 seed in the East, Indiana took advantage of the injury-plagued Milwaukee Bucks, breezing through their first-round series in five games. Then the Pacers stunned the world by eliminating the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five – despite falling behind 32-15 in the first quarter of Game 1.
That was nothing compared to what Indiana did to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Finals. The opener saw New York up by 14 points with just 2:45 remaining, but the Pacers made their most amazing comeback yet, forcing overtime before winning 138-135 as 4.5-point road dogs. The Knicks had their moments after that, but eventually fell to Indiana 4-2, leaving us with what should be an epic NBA Finals matchup tipping off this Thursday at 8:30 PM ET.
IND: Player of the Season
Earlier this year, The Atlantic asked NBA players who the league’s most overrated player was. Their answer was Tyrese Haliburton. Maybe it was that slow start to the 2024-25 campaign – or maybe other players just hate having to deal with this guy. Either way, Haliburton has proved his worth during this postseason; depending on what happens in the finals, the signature moment may have already come in Game 1 versus the Knicks, when Haliburton hit that game-tying bucket at the end of regulation and made the same “choke” sign as former Pacers guard Reggie Miller during the 1994 Eastern Final, also against New York.
While there’s no question Haliburton is their best player, Pascal Siakam did lead the Pacers in scoring this year with 20.2 points per game to Haliburton’s 18.6. This was exactly the kind of performance Indiana was hoping for when they sent three first-round picks to Toronto in January 2024. It may have come at the expense of several other former Raptors on the Knicks’ roster, OG Anunoby most prominent among them, but Siakam now gets the chance to win his second NBA championship.
As for that Canadian talent, both Andrew Nembhard (from Aurora, Ontario) and Bennedict Mathurin (from Montreal) played important roles in the Eastern Final – Nembhard with his 3-and-D, and Mathurin hitting the 20-point mark off the bench in Games 4 and 5. But make no mistake: The Indiana Pacers will live and die with Haliburton in the 2025 NBA Finals.
Bodog’s Best Bet: IND Special
There’s way too much offensive talent on the Pacers for us to overlook them as +460 underdogs in the NBA Finals. They’ve already put away one supposed juggernaut in the Cavaliers (+9.5 point differential); as long as they’re healthy, and there’s enough time on the clock, Indiana has what it takes to overcome just about any deficit you throw at them.
If +460 isn’t a big enough payday for you, how about +700 for Haliburton winning Finals MVP? Or perhaps you’d like a piece of “Spicy P” Siakam at +1400. Make your picks today at Bodog Sportsbook, and see what other NBA Finals bets we have for you on our basketball odds page before these two incredible teams tip off Thursday night.
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