Will the Oklahoma City Thunder manage to keep their hopes alive in the NBA Finals? With the odds initially in their favor to clinch the championship before the Indiana Pacers series, they now find themselves on the back foot with a 2-1 deficit. They are now staring at an essential Game 4 in Indiana this Friday night. Even though they are viewed as the preferred team to emerge victorious in this Game 4 clash, they are also seen as the favorites for the series, despite being in arrears. Perhaps the market’s perspective would shift towards Tyrese Haliburton and his team if they could pull off a win to take a dominating 3-1 lead in this series.
This coming Friday night, I’ll be focusing on a selection of prop bets, featuring Haliburton and Chet Holmgren among others. Let’s delve into a detailed evaluation for each game choice for the fourth game of the Finals. Starting with Chet Holmgren, bet UNDER 1.5 3-Pointers Made. There’s no doubt that Holmgren posted a strong performance in Game 2, but he appeared to falter in Game 1 and towards the end of Game 3. It appears that the Pacers are comfortable with letting Holmgren take his shots from beyond the arc, considering his 1-for-10 scoreline in the series, including a barren 0-for-6 in Game 3.
The past number 2 overall selection might be better off opting for an aggressive approach towards the hoop in the upcoming Game 4, especially given his disappointing 25.0 percent success rate from the 3-point line since the second playoff round got underway. Even after surpassing this mark in three out of his four meetings with Memphis in the opening round, Holmgren has only managed to do it four times in his last 15 postseason games. Given these stats, he seems to be an easy target for me to go against in Game 4.
Now onto TJ McConnell’s bet, OVER 13.5 Points, Rebounds, and Assists combined. McConnell has already left his mark on this series, putting up combinations of 14, 17, and 20 in points, rebounds and assists even without surpassing 20 minutes in a single game. All through the playoffs, he’s averaged 8.6 points, 4.1 assists, and 2.9 rebounds for each outing. Given his 13.5 PRA clearance in 10 out of his 19 playoff encounters, it’s apparent that he’s been a thorn in the Thunder’s side in this series, banking a shooting effort of 12-for-21 from the field over three games.
For McConnell, this number appears to be an understatement for what he could potentially achieve this Friday night. Underlining Tyrese Haliburton’s wager, OVER 14.5 combined Rebounds and Assists. Game 3 highlighted Haliburton taking on a more active role in the Pacers’ game plan, logging his highest assist count of the series at 11 and adding nine rebounds to his tally. He also notched up 22 points, marking a series high in his sterling performance.
So far in the postseason, Haliburton is supporting his team with an average of 9.4 assists from 15.9 opportunities per game, while tacking on 6.3 rebounds out of 8.9 chances every game. With Thunder employing a small-ball strategy, greater rebounding possibilities have opened up, not just for the Pacers, but for Haliburton as well, who gathered 10 rebounds in the opening match.
Given his performance so far, it seems the line for the Pacers’ star player could be underestimated, particularly if he’s able to record double digits in assists in the upcoming Game 4. Out of his last nine games, Haliburton managed to accumulate 15 or more in combined rebounds and assists on six occasions.