Tonight, DraftKings Sportsbook is offering an amazing profit boost promotion for the beginning of the NBA Finals. If you create a same game parlay (SGP) for Game 1 between the Pacers and the Thunder, you’ll then be issued a single-use Profit Boost Token. The only catch? The parlay has to be at least three legs with odds of at least +300 or longer. Seems simple enough, right? So simple I think I’ll whip one up right now.
Here’s my favorite same game parlay for Game 1 of the final series of the 2024-25 NBA season.
Pacers vs. Thunder Same Game Parlay
- Shai Gligeous-Alexander 30+ Points
- Thunder Alternate Spread (-10.5)
- Alternate Total: Over 225.5
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 30+ Points
It’s so strange to assume that scoring 30 points in an NBA Finals game, let alone a playoff game, is easy for someone, yet I guess that’s what makes Gilgeous-Alexander the MVP. For the postseason as a whole, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging an impressive 29.8 points per contest with a 32.3% usage rate. That’s despite shooting just 30.0% from three-point range, too. Gilgeous-Alexander’s scoring exploits look even more impressive from a game-by-game perspective. To wit, SGA has exceeded 30 points in 11 of the Thunder’s 16 playoff tilts, including seven of the past eight, as the stakes have gotten higher. Two of the starts he went under? Absolute blowouts where the All-Star barely saw the floor in the second half. He’s hitting this prop at a 78.6% clip in games where he’s logged at least 30 minutes. Seems like a simple enough requirement to bank on this evening.
Thunder Alternate Spread (-10.5)
I’ll be honest, this isn’t much of an alt line, as the DraftKings Sportsbook has Oklahoma City listed as 9.5-point favorites in Game 1. Still, let this be a small endorsement of my confidence in this team at home. The Thunder have only lost one matchup at the Paycom Center in the postseason, a Game 1 defeat at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. If you’ll remember, that was a contest that Oklahoma City was winning by as many as 11 points with less than five minutes remaining, and it took an incredible sequence of missed free throws and odd take-foul decisions to get to that result. Even with that loss, the Thunder come into the NBA Finals outscoring opponents by a staggering 24.7 points per 100 possessions on their home floor. It’s just hard to ignore a stat like that.
Alternate Total: Over 225.5
I’m cautiously optimistic that this will be a high-scoring affair, yet you always have to be a little careful with a Thunder defense that is surrendering only 97.2 opponent points per 100 possessions at home in the postseason. Still, this is a matchup between two teams that have been very efficient with their scoring in the playoffs, ranking second and third, respectively, in offensive rating. Also, despite the squad’s reputation as a grinding defensive force, Oklahoma City has played at the fastest pace of any postseason team that got out of the first round (100.6). I think an uptempo environment suits Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam well from an offensive standpoint, and that the Pacers will be able to continue what has been a fantastic scoring effort in the playoffs. Indiana leads all teams with a 2.21 assist to turnover ratio in the postseason. It’ll do its part to get this game to the over.
