The NBA season is only two days young and already we have a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.
The two teams lock horns Thursday night on ESPN, with tip-off being scheduled for 7.30 pm. In preparation for this game, I’ve come up with a Same Game Parlay at +400 odds targeting a pair of familiar faces. We got you covered with NBA Picks for every single game this season, let’s now jump into my SGP bet!
Chet Holmgren to Record a Double-Double (+195)
Pascal Siakam to Score 20+ Points (-113)
Same Game Parlay odds: +400
Chet Holmgren to Record a Double-Double (+195)
I was really impressed with what I saw from Chet Holmgren in the season opener, despite him failing to tally double digit rebounds. In that game he faced the tallest starting five in NBA history, so it’s really hard to hold that against him. This team around he faces a much smaller Pacers squad, a team that allowed the most double-doubles to opposing Power Forwards last season out of all 30 NBA teams. To make matters worse for last year’s runner-up team, they let go of Myles Turner who was their starting PF/C all year long. Losing him will be a massive loss to the interior for team that ranked 21st in opponent rebounds at 53.1 per game. Despite an injury riddled season last year, Holmgren recorded 11 double-doubles in 32 regular season games. In the NBA Finals series vs Indiana he notched 3 of them in the final 5 games, I think it’s time he records his first one of the season in Thursday’s affair.
Read my Oklahoma City Thunder vs Indiana Pacers Predictions
Pascal Siakam to Score 20+ Points (-113)
I’ve always been a believer in players who have mastered the consistency of their craft and a few have done that like Pascal Siakam has over the years. The 31-year old finished the regular season averaging 20.2 points per game for Indy, while shooting almost 52% from the field and 39% from three. He carried that form over to the postseason as well, averaging almost identical numbers in 23 games played with a significant improvement from beyond the arc at 42.7%. Not having Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner to start the year will take a massive adjustment for the Pacers to withstand the early onslaught of teams going after them and I believe this is where Siakam steps up. Despite not being the most vocal player out there, I expect Siakam to now be the leader of this team. In 10 meetings vs the Thunder he’s just shy of 19 points per game, with shooting splits of 47-41-76. OKC had big issues against opposing PFs last season, allowing the 3rd most points to that position in the entire NBA. After seeing Alperen Sengun torch them for 39 and Kevin Durant add 23 against them on Tuesday, I feel like Siakam will do just enough to score 20 points here.
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