Published on Wednesday, 4/30/25, at 12:08 p.m. Eastern.
Updated on Saturday, 5/3/25, at 8:40 a.m. Eastern.

The Westgate SuperBook opened the Cleveland Cavaliers (68-18 straight up, 51-34-1 against the spread) as -500 ‘chalk’ vs. the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals after Indiana advanced past Milwaukee in their first-round matchup last night. The Pacers were +400 underdogs.

Rick Carlisle’s team scored the last eight points of overtime in a 34-second stretch, including Tyrese Haliburton’s driving layup for the game winner with 1.1 seconds remaining, to pull out a 119-118 win over the Bucks in Tuesday’s Game 5.

Milwaukee still covered the spread as a 7.5-point road underdog, and the 237 combined points went ‘over’ the 222-point total thanks to the extra session. (The score was 103-103 for only 206 combined points at the end of regulation.) Bettors backing the Bucks on the money line for a payout in the +300 neighborhood were left with a crushing defeat.

It appeared as if Gary Trent Jr. was going to be the hero for Milwaukee. He drained 3-pointers on four consecutive possessions in OT, with the last one staking the Bucks to a 115-111 lead with 1:08 remaining.

After getting a stop, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s bucket at the rim gave his team a six-point advantage. When Haliburton missed a 3-pointer, Milwaukee was in the driver’s seat with AJ Green headed to the free-throw line with only 40 seconds left.

Green made the first free throw but missed the second, leaving the Pacers with a seven-point deficit. Indiana’s rally began when Andrew Nembhard buried a long trey to make it a four-point game with 34.1 ticks on the clock.

Next, Nembhard stole a bad pass from Trent Jr. that preceded a driving layup by Haliburton, who was fouled by Green and made the free throw to cut the deficit to 118-117 with 17 seconds remaining.

After a timeout, Milwaukee broke Indiana’s full-court pressure with a pass ahead to Green, who dished the ball to Trent Jr. on the left wing. The pass from Green hit Trent Jr. in the hands, but the ball somehow slipped through his legs and out of bounds with 10.1 seconds left to set up Haliburton’s heroics.

Haliburton finished with 26 points, five rebounds, three steals, three blocked shots and nine assists compared to only one turnover. Myles Turner added 21 points, 12 rebounds and three assists without a turnover, while Aaron Nesmith had 19 points, 12 boards and three assists without a turnover.

As usual in the postseason, T.J. McConnell was fantastic off the bench, contributing 18 points, three rebounds and three assists in merely 17 minutes of playing time.

In the losing effort, Trent Jr. had 33 points, five steals and five rebounds. Antetokounmpo had 30 points, 20 boards, 13 assists, two steals and a pair of blocked shots. Green finished with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from downtown.

Cleveland broke out the brooms and delivered an open-hand pimpslap in Miami on Monday, destroying the Heat 138-83 as an eight-point road favorite. The 221 combined points jumped ‘over’ the 211.5-point tally.

Donovan Mitchell was the catalyst with 22 points and five assists. Jarrett Allen added 14 points, 12 rebounds and six steals.

The Cavs dealt out the most lopsided point differential (+122) in a four-game sweep in NBA history, and they did it with 27 points to spare.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, most books had Cleveland installed as an eight-point home favorite for Sunday’s series opener. The total was 227 points, and the Pacers had +260 money-line odds.

By Saturday morning, most spots still had the Cavs at -8, but the total had jumped up to 229.5 points at most shops.

FanDuel has the Cavs with +500 odds to win the NBA Finals, while the Pacers are at 60/1.

Indiana (54-33 SU, 39-47-1 ATS) won three of four head-to-head meetings over Cleveland during the regular season, going 2-2 ATS. The totals were a wash (2-2), but we’ll point out that the ‘under’ would’ve gone 3-1 if not for one of the games going to overtime.

The four combined scores were 201, 244, 226 and 244 points, but the OT game (244) had only 210 points at the end of regulation.

Indiana has a 17-15 ATS record with 16 outright wins in its 32 games as an underdog this season. When the Pacers have been ‘dogs of 6.5 points or more, they’ve produced a 7-4 record both SU and ATS.

Game 1 is set for a 6:00 p.m. Eastern tip Sunday on TNT.