Game 4 of the NBA Finals is Friday night, with the Indiana Pacers looking to take a 3-1 lead on the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The other Friday the 13th games in finals history — San Antonio beat New Jersey 93-83 on June 13, 2003; Chicago beat Utah 90-86 on June 13, 1997; and New York beat Rochester 79-73 on April 13, 1951.
The Thunder, not including the Seattle SuperSonics years, are 5-2 in Friday the 13th games. Indiana is 20-9 in Friday the 13th games since joining the NBA.
Thursday's NBA Finals news
— McConnell, Mathurin lead the bench charge
Previous stories of note
— Pacers, back home, have things to figure out
— 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
— 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'
Moving on up, Part 1
The win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals was Oklahoma City’s 81st of the season (68 regular season, 13 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
82 wins — Los Angeles Lakers, 1999-2000; Boston, 1985-86; Miami, 2012-13; Boston, 2007-08; Chicago, 1991-92.
81 wins — Oklahoma City, 2024-25; Los Angeles Lakers, 1971-72; Los Angeles Lakers, 2008-09.
Moving on up, Part 2
The Thunder will set an NBA record for total points scored in a season on Friday. They really set it on Wednesday, but it doesn't count.
So far, including regular season and postseason games, the Thunder have scored 12,094 points this season. That's third-most all-time behind No. 1 Golden State (12,161 in 2018-19) and No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers (12,096 in 1984-85).
Oklahoma City needs only 68 points on Friday to pass the Warriors.
But if the NBA Cup championship game — technically an exhibition since it doesn't count in any standings — was included, the Thunder would already have 12,175 points this season and have topped the Warriors' record.
Betting odds
Oklahoma City (-250) remains the favorite — a considerably smaller one — to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana's odds are now +200 after the Game 3 win.
The Thunder are 6.5-point favorites over Indiana for Game 3.
The Pacers have covered in 13 of their first 19 games of these playoffs. The Thunder — favored in every game so far — have covered eight out of 19 times to this point.
NBA Finals schedule
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
Wednesday — Game 3, Indiana 116, Oklahoma City 107
Friday — Game 4, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 8:30 p.m. EDT
Monday — Game 5, Indiana at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT
June 19 — Game 6, Oklahoma City at Indiana, if necessary, 8:30 p.m. EDT
June 22 — Game 7, Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary, 8 p.m. EDT
(And good news: No NBA Finals games conflict with Stanley Cup Final dates!)
A close finals, geographically
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 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).
Key upcoming events
June 25 — NBA draft, first round.
June 26 — NBA draft, second round.
SGA is the MVP
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
Stats of the day
— The Thunder will be favored for the 98th time this season, the first team to do that since the 2012-13 Miami Heat.
— The Pacers will play their 50th home game of the season Friday, the fourth time in the franchise's NBA-era history that it has hit that number.
Quote of the day
“It’s physical. It’s tough, gritty. It’s really, really hard. You feel every single possession out there when you’re on the floor.” — Pacers forward Pascal Siakam.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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