The 2025 NBA championship will be decided Sunday night. It’s NBA Finals Game 7 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. It’s the NBA’s first Game 7 since 2016, and it will be a historic title for either team. The Thunder are seeking their first championship since moving to Oklahoma City. The Pacers are looking for their first NBA title ever. Indy won championships in the ABA in the 1970s, but never the NBA Finals.
The Pacers forced this Game 7 with a blowout win in Game 6 on Thursday. Indiana used a huge second quarter run, great defense and a balanced attack to pull away. The pressure is on the Thunder at home. OKC is still favored to win Game 7, and the team has been mostly excellent on its home court this postseason.
The Thunder already won one Game 7 in this playoff run, crushing the Nuggets to win a second-round series last month.
Thunder vs. Pacers: Game 7 info
Time: 8 p.m. ET | Date: Sunday, June 22
Location: Paycom Center — Oklahoma City
TV channel: ABC | Live stream: fubo (Try for free)
Odds (via DraftKings): Thunder -7, O/U 214.5
Thunder vs. Pacers: Game 7 best bets
There are reasonable arguments for either pick here. The Thunder are a monstrous +247 in 12 home games this postseason, 10 of which they’ve won. A season-long résumé means less and less the deeper you go into a series, but for what it’s worth, Oklahoma City’s was far better. But ultimately, the Pacers have to be the pick here. There have been eight Game 7s in post-merger Finals history. None have been decided by more than nine points, and that’s the only one not to cover an eight-point spread. These games are always close. The Pacers have earned our trust at this point. They’re not going to be overwhelmed by the moment. They’re going to enter Game 7 as loose as you realistically can. They might lose the game. Suggesting they’ll get blown out — even in light of Denver’s blowout Game 7 loss in Oklahoma City a month ago — feels almost unfair in light of everything they’ve accomplished this postseason. The pick: Pacers +7
Every point total line in this series has been in the 220s, and many of them quite high into the 220s. But the line for Game 7, as of right now, is 214.5. There’s obviously plenty of historical precedent there. Game 7s tend to be low-scoring. There have been 26 Game 7s since 2018, but only six have gone over 216 points. These games tend to be low-scoring. The nerves are usually overwhelming. However, I’m going to zag and take the over for a few reasons. Do you really think the Pacers are going to be nervous for anything at this point? How many insane comebacks do they need to complete to prove that they’re immune to those sorts of things? The Thunder aren’t. They’re going to be facing significant pressure here as a supposed dynasty-in-waiting that could lose the Finals after a 68-win season. But they’ve already played a game under somewhat similar circumstances this postseason against Denver. They scored 125 points. This has been a rickety postseason for the Thunder, but they’ve met the challenge when they’ve needed to. The pick: Over 214.5
I’m almost offended at T.J. McConnell’s point total line. He’s only at 9.5? Really? He’s crossed that line in four of his past five games, but more importantly, the primary drawback of McConnell is that he’s a relatively low-minutes player. He goes all out when he’s on the floor, but his totals tend to be lower because he doesn’t play too much. Well, he just played a playoff-high 24 minutes in Game 6. His third-highest minutes total came in Game 5 at 21 minutes and 58 seconds. This is Game 7 of the NBA Finals and Tyrese Haliburton is hobbled. It’s all-hands-on-deck time. By the time a series reaches Game 7, most of a team’s fancy, designed actions have been solved. These games so often come down to which team can create its own shot and which role players can get hot for a few minutes to break through the muck. That’s McConnell in a nutshell. He’s shined throughout the series. Expect another gem in Game 7. The pick: McConnell over 9.5 points
