Indiana Pacers

Indiana Pacers

With a nucleus of young talent and a roster that was rejuvenated after acquiring Caris LeVert, it would be fair to expect the Pacers to bounce back in 2021-22, especially after firing head coach Nate Bjorkgren, who reportedly lost the locker room late in the season. Indiana will be hoping to replicate their five straight playoff appearances in the years before Bjorkgren with their next coach. Fans and bettors alike should be aware of all the information around odds, point spreads, moneylines, over/unders, and more as the season approaches.

Indiana Pacers Point Spreads

In a year where so much went wrong for Indiana, it was their against-the-spread (ATS) performance that showcased the depths of their underperformance. With a record of 31-40-1 ATS, the Pacers lost bettors 13 units over the course of the season, the third-worst performance in the league. The spread is a phrase used to signal a point spread bet, or a wager on the margin of victory of a game.

Here’s an example to understand the market better:

• Chicago Bulls (+3.5)
• Indiana Pacers (-3.5)

Across the board in all sports betting, the favorite is determined by the team or player with a minus sign (-) next to their name or odds, and the underdog is indicated by a plus sign (+). In this case, a bet on the favored Pacers means you’re betting on Indiana to win by four or more points. Should the Pacers lose or merely win by three points or fewer, bets on the underdog Bulls would cash.

Indiana Pacers Moneylines

Much like point spreads, moneylines are wagers on who will win the game -- except with moneylines, there is no consideration given to the margin of error, only the winner of the contest. Same as with a point spread, the underdog is given a plus sign (+) and the favorite a minus sign (-).

Let’s revisit our example from above to learn more:

• Chicago Bulls +150
• Indiana Pacers -180

In this game, the favored Pacers are given odds of -180, meaning that it would take a bet of $180 to win $100; the underdog Bulls have odds of +150, meaning that a $100 wager wins $150 if the Bulls are victorious. These are odds as written in American format, which always assume that a bettor is operating in units of $10 or $100.

Indiana Pacers Over/Unders

For bettors who like lots of points, there was no better bet in the regular season than the Indiana Pacers, who saw their games go above the total 45 times, netting over bettors 15.3 units over the course of the season. This style of bet is an over/under, sometimes called a total, where wagers are on the total number of points scored, with the outcome of the game having no impact on the bet. If the total for our Bulls-Pacers game was set at 232 points, an over bettor would need 233 or more total points to be scored, while under bettors would be rooting for 231 or fewer. In the case of 232 points exactly, the result would be a “push,” and all wagers would be refunded.

Indiana Pacers Props

Bettors interested in more exotic wagers than merely the outcome or point total should turn their gaze to the prop bets market, where a wide variety of options are available. Most prop bets are tied to an individual player’s stat line, such as betting Malcolm Brogdon over/under 6.5 assists in a game. But others are more specific questions to be answered, such as “will Domantas Sabonis record a double-double?” or “who will score the first basket of the game?”

Pacers Futures

You can bet just about anything at a legal U.S. sportsbook these days, including on events such as the 2022 NBA Finals that are long from being held. These bets are called “futures,” as they deal with competitions and contests that won’t be resolved until long after the bet has been placed. Some futures are simple bets on how far a team will progress in the playoffs, such as betting the Pacers to win the Eastern Conference or go over their win total. Others are long-term prop bets on a player, such as Caris LeVert going over or under a certain number of rebounds during the season, or betting on a player to win individual awards such as MVP or Sixth Man of the Year.