Thunder vs. Pacers prediction and odds for Friday, March 31
By Josh Yourish
The Indiana Pacers are probably out of it in the Eastern Conference with a 33-44 record, 12th in the postseason race.
However, very few teams are out of it in the West, least of all the Oklahoma City Thunder who are 38-39 and in 10th place. The Play-In Tournament has certainly opened things up, but even without it the West is as close as can be for those final playoff spots.
The young Thunder need to take care of business in road games against teams like the Pacers if they want to make the playoffs with this core and they’re favorites to do it.
Thunder vs. Pacers odds, spread and total
Thunder vs. Pacers prediction and pick
On Wednesday, the Pacers played the Bucks and it was a high-scoring affair. They lost, 149-136, but that’s a strong offensive performance against a very high level defensive team. The problem is that they couldn’t stop anything and let Milwaukee shoot 62.4% from the field.
In March, the Pacers have been the worst defensive team by defensive rating, 123.5. They are 0-4 against the spread in their last four games, so they’re seriously struggling, outside of one player. Tyrese Haliburton came back from injury with a vengeance this month, he’s averaging 27.2 points and 13.6 assists a game. In those last five games, the Pacers have averaged 116.6 points a game.
Also on Wednesday, OKC played Detroit close without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but won 107-106 and got 27 points from Jalen Williams. They have more offense options outside of SGA now, and they should have their star point guard back for this one. I think offense will come very easy for both teams in this game and the over is the best bet.
Pick: OVER 235.5
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change