NBA Finals guide: When the games are, how to watch, what the odds are

By The
Associated Press

The Larry O'Brien Trophy will be ready for presentation on Thursday night. All the Oklahoma City Thunder have to do is win one more game and they'll be NBA champions.

Standing in their way is the Indiana Pacers, who will have home-court advantage in their quest to force a winner-take-all Game 7.

It's unclear if Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton will be able to play against the Thunder on Thursday night. He has a strained right calf but says he wants to play.

The Thunder beat the Pacers 120-109 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, taking a 3-2 lead in the title matchup. Jalen Williams scored 40 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 to lead the Thunder.

— There is serious concern about Haliburton's status

— Game 6 preview

— TJ McConnell ready for whatever is needed

— Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams went on a historic scoring spree

— Rest is a lovely luxury in the NBA Finals

— Haliburton plays through leg injury

— Rick Carlisle talks up the WNBA

— Rick Carlisle defends referee Scott Foster

— Jalen Williams and his role with the Thunder

— The ties that bind: Fever, Pacers more than neighbors

— For Thunder, the obstacle is the way

— Alex Caruso, Oklahoma City’s ‘Robin’

— Thunder break record for most points in a season

— Pacers coach Rick Carlisle using his platform during finals

— The moment is not too big for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

— Don Nelson wins Chuck Daly Award and makes a Luka Doncic statement

— There’s Canadian intrigue in these finals

— Tyrese Haliburton is Mr. Clutch

— In OKC, everybody must visit the memorial

— It’s the Comeback Playoffs

— Commissioner Adam Silver talks parity, expansion, more

— Things to know about these NBA Finals

— The long, winding road for Rick Carlisle

— Players play for the trophy. Referees ref for the jacket

— Ashley Kerr wins a lot of titles. She’s Mark Daigneault’s wife

— The ratings might not be good. The NBA has 76 billion reasons not to worry

— In Seattle, the message is clear: ‘Go Pacers’

If the NBA Finals end on Thursday, it will mark the third time that the trophy was awarded on June 19.

And the Pacers won't want to see history repeat itself.

The last time June 19 became the final day of an NBA season was 2016, when Cleveland beat Golden State in Game 7 to cap the comeback from a 3-1 series deficit.

The first — and only other — time that the championship was won on June 19? That would be 2000, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Pacers in Game 6. The Pacers were on the road for that one; this Game 6 is at home for Indiana.

The win in Game 5 of the NBA Finals was Oklahoma City’s 83rd of the season (68 regular season, 15 playoffs).

The Thunder won’t catch Golden State and its record 88 wins in 2015-16, nor will it catch Chicago and its 87 wins in 1995-96.

But the Thunder could move into a tie with the 1996-97 Bulls for No. 3 all-time for most wins in a season.

A look at where the Thunder are on the all-time wins list:

88 wins — Golden State, 2015-16

87 wins — Chicago, 1995-96

84 wins — Chicago, 1996-97

83 wins — Golden State, 2016-17; Oklahoma City, 2024-25.

Oklahoma City (-3000) is now an enormous favorite to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana's odds are now +1250 after the Game 5 loss, and the odds have gotten even longer in the two days that followed.

The Thunder are up to 6.5-point favorites over Indiana for Game 6. It was 4.5 points immediately after Game 5 and likely moved because of the uncertainty surrounding Tyrese Haliburton's status.

The Pacers have covered in 13 of their first 21 games of these playoffs. The Thunder — favored in every game so far — have covered 10 out of 21 times to this point.

All games of the NBA Finals will be aired on ABC.

June 5 — Game 1, Indiana 111, Oklahoma City 110

June 8 — Game 2, Oklahoma City 123, Indiana 107

June 11 — Game 3, Indiana 116, Oklahoma City 107

June 13 — Game 4, Oklahoma City 111, Indiana 104

Monday — Game 5, Oklahoma City 120, Indiana 109

Thursday — Game 6, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 8:30 p.m. EDT

Sunday — Game 7, Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary, 8 p.m. EDT

This is the first time since 2022 that both the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final went at least six games.

Game 6 in the NBA Finals is Thursday. The Florida Panthers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup on Tuesday night, finishing off a six-game series with the Edmonton Oilers.

The 688 miles by air between Oklahoma City and Indiana — by road, it is a bit longer — represents the shortest distance between finals cities in 69 years. That doesn’t count the pandemic “bubble” season, when the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat were in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, for the entirety of the 2020 finals.

The last time a between-cities finals trip was this short was 1956, with only 530 miles separating Fort Wayne and Philadelphia.

Other short finals trips, in air miles: Syracuse to Fort Wayne (489 miles, 1955), Rochester to New York (253 miles, 1951) and Baltimore to Philadelphia (90 miles, 1948).

The longest distance between finals cities was Boston to San Francisco for the 2022 finals; those cities are 2,704 miles apart by air. That’s just about 10 miles longer than Boston to Oakland, and about 100 miles longer than Boston to Los Angeles.

Under the current league format, the shortest possible distance between finals cities would be the 297 miles that separates Minnesota and Milwaukee. That’s just a bit shorter than Memphis-Atlanta (331) and Minnesota-Chicago (334).

June 25 — NBA draft, first round.

June 26 — NBA draft, second round.

A recap of Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s winning of the NBA MVP award.

The story: Gilgeous-Alexander tops Jokic for MVP award

The reaction: SGA tears up when talking about his wife

Steve Nash speaks: Canada’s 1st MVP thrilled to see SGA follow him

The notebook: Jokic finishes top-2 again, Giannis’ streak ends, LeBron gets votes

— Game 6 will be Indiana's 51st and final home game of the season, tying for the second-most in franchise history. The Pacers played 53 in 1999-2000 and 51 in 2013-14.

— A Thunder win in Game 6 would give Oklahoma City 38 road wins this season, factoring both regular-season and playoff games. That would tie the NBA record. Chicago in 1995-96, Golden State in 2015-16 and Golden State in 2016-17 all were 38-game road winners in a season.

— Road teams have won 36 games in these playoffs. The record is 39 in 2014. Road teams won 37 games in 2005 and 2021, which ties for the second-highest total. (None of that includes the 2020 bubble playoffs, when “road” teams won 43 games when everything was held at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.)

“It’s the first team to four. Until you have four wins, you’re not the better team, you’re not the champion, you don’t get to win.” — Thunder guard Alex Caruso.

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