Longtime Bill Simmons fans have come to love — or perhaps even become slightly annoyed with — his oddly specific analysis.
It’s not just enough for an NBA star to be one of the best players of all-time; he has to be a top-17 player in history. Nor is he capable of merely predicting that a player will have a good all-around game; he has to also project that said player will score 23 points, grab 13 rebounds and record eight assists.
Following Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals last week, Simmons saw enough from Indiana Pacers shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin that he was willing to make one of his patented predictions. Noting the ease at which the former Arizona star navigated the Oklahoma City Thunder’s vaunted defense, The Ringer founder projected that the 22-year-old would eventually have a big game on basketball’s biggest stage.
And as he is wont to do, he didn’t stop there, as he also specified the exact type of performance he had in mind.
“His stats weren’t good and this is just an eye test and isn’t backed up by any actual information. I thought Mathurin seemed athletically comfortable in this game and I’m intrigued by what his upside is for them,” Simmons told Zach Lowe on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “Because OKC is so fast and so athletic and they’re just at warp speed. And I just thought he looked comfortable in the chaos in a way that I’m wondering are we gonna hear from him in this series with one of those game? You know, when Mathurin will have those games where it’s like, ‘he scored 27 points in 22 minutes.’ I feel like he’s gonna have one of those.”
Simmons’ prediction came and went without anyone calling much attention to it. But following Game 3, many on social media brought it back up. Why? Because Mathurin scored exactly 27 points in 22 minutes in the Pacers’ 116-107 Game 3 victory on Thursday night, which gave Indiana a 2-1 series lead.
Bill Simmons predicts Mathurin will have a Finals game where he scores 27 points in 22 minutes
Mathurin last night: 27 points in 22 minutes
Clairvoyant Bill strikes again! pic.twitter.com/SmWgP2wNxB
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) June 12, 2025
After attending Game 3 in-person, Simmons — who often refers to himself as “Clairvoyant Bill” — recorded another episode of Th Bill Simmons Podcast with Lowe. And while the Sports Guy was aware that prediction had proved accurate, even he didn’t seem to realize that he had hit it exactly on the head.
“I think I said I could see him having 27 in 20 minutes,” Simmons inaccurately recalled. “How many minutes did he play? Probably more than 20.”
“Twenty-two minutes,” Lowe noted. “And he had 27 points exactly.”
For all of the talk about market size with regard to these Finals, the Pacers-Thunder matchup has already proven to be a revelation for basketball sickos like Simmons. And in case you needed any further proof of his bonafides, look no further than his ability to nail such predictions, no matter how oddly specific they might be.
