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

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander played like an MVP for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. And with that, the NBA Finals are tied at two games apiece.

It's a best-of-three series now, with the Thunder and Indiana Pacers set to play Game 5 on Monday night in Oklahoma City. Game 6 is in Indiana on Thursday and, if necessary, the final game of the season will be back at OKC on June 22.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points in the final 5 minutes, leading the Thunder to a 111-104 win in Game 4.

Friday's NBA Finals news

— How Game 4 got away from the Pacers

— Thunder break record for most points in a season

— Pacers coach Rick Carlisle using his platform during finals

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

— 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'

Moving on up, Part 1

The win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals was Oklahoma City’s 82nd of the season (68 regular season, 14 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; Oklahoma City, 2024-25.

Moving on up, Part 2

The Thunder 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 12,205 points this season. That passed the mark of 12,161 set by Golden State in 2018-19.

Betting odds

Oklahoma City (-625) is back to being a big favorite to win the NBA title, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Indiana's odds are now +450 after the Game 4 loss.

The Thunder are 9.5-point favorites over Indiana for Game 5.

The Pacers have covered in 13 of their first 20 games of these playoffs. The Thunder — favored in every game so far — have covered nine out of 20 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

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

Friday — Game 4, Oklahoma City 111, Indiana 104

Monday — Game 5, Indiana at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. EDT

Thursday — Game 6, Oklahoma City at Indiana, 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 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).

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 are now 19-2 after a loss across the regular season, the NBA Cup final and in the playoffs this season.

— Thunder guard Alex Caruso had zero 20-point games in the regular season. He's had two in the NBA Finals.

— Oklahoma City made three 3-pointers in Game 4. The last team to make that few 3-pointers in a finals game was ... well, Oklahoma City, in a Game 4 loss to Miami in the 2012 title series.

Quote of the day

“You really wouldn’t know whether he’s up three, down three, up 30, down 30, eating dinner on a Wednesday. He’s pretty much the same guy.” — Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba